


Forgotten Past, Brave Hearts

by Aquilaaqua



Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Star Trek: Discovery, Teen Titans (Animated Series), Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins)
Genre: DCEU - Freeform, Gen, Teen Titans - Freeform, Will add characters as we go, and others - Freeform, apokolips war, minor oc that has been promoted to supporting character that will appear in more chapters, mixture of Justice League & Justice League Unlimited cartoon, set 250 years after Justice League Unlimited
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27955649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquilaaqua/pseuds/Aquilaaqua
Summary: Massive S2 AU. Eight signals appeared over the galaxy and the Federation is desperate for answers. Discovery is dispatched to investigate these signals. Along the way, they find a piece of Earth’s history that was long forgotten: the Justice League. (Mixture of the Justice League & Justice League Unlimited cartoon, Apokolips War, DCEU, Teen Titans, and others)
Relationships: Diana (Wonder Woman) & Clark Kent
Comments: 39
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

The eight signals that suddenly appeared are a mystery to all. The Federation has detected it, the Klingons had detected it, and several others as well. But no one call give any explanation as to what they mean.

The _Enterprise_ was Starfleet’s first choice to investigate these signals. However, the unexpected, unexplainable catastrophic failure of the ship meant that the task had to be given to the _Discovery_ instead under Captain Pike. The first signal led them to a dark matter asteroid where they found the wreckage of the _Hiawatha_. There they rescued Jett Reno and the crew she was keeping alive for 10 months. After obtaining a dark matter rock for the science team, _Discovery_ headed back to the Space docks where the _Enterprise_ is being repaired where they dropped off Nhan and the _Hiawatha_ ’s survivors.

At the same time, Michael Burnham made an unsettling connection regarding her brother, Spock and the eight signals, something she shared with Pike as soon as she returned to _Discovery_ only to be told that her brother had admitted himself in the psychiatric ward at Starbase 5.

As much as Michael wants to find out exactly why Spock admitted himself and grouse at her captain for not telling her before, all that had to be set aside as another signal appeared. With Tilly’s new idea and Michael’s suggestion, they managed to pinpoint the location of the signal.

“Signal coordinates received. It’s in the Beta Quadrant 51450 light-years away.” Michael announced once she and Tilly got the readings.

“At top speed, that would take us 150 years to get that far.” Pike shook his head as he ran the math. “My unborn’s children’s children would be lucky to get there. Ideas?”

“The spore drive.” Saru pipped in. “But until a nonhuman interface is found, Starfleet has decommissioned it, or its navigator, really.”

“In order to guide us through the mycelial network, Commander Stamets injected himself with Tardigrade DNA, a violation of Startfleet’s band on genetic manipulation.” Michael explained and Saru continued.

“They were willing to overlook this during the war, however.”

Pike’s face scrunched up in confusion. “A Tardigrade?”

“I suppose you had to be there.” Memories of Ripper sprang into everyone’s minds and inwardly wincing at Landry’s death and the events leading up to Stamets injecting the Tardigrade DNA.

Pike, thankfully, decided not to press on the story. Instead, he focused back on the mission at hand. “Getting to the bottom of these signals is of the utmost importance to the Federation. They let you use the drive to fight the Klingons. They’ll give us dispensation now. How long before it can be operational?”

“Once I begin prepping Commander Stamets, 20 minutes.” Tilly told him.

Nodding, Pike waved at her. “Get to it.”

Nodding back, Tilly quickly left the bridge to head down to Engineering. It was time to put the Spore Drive back in action. Saru quietly briefed Pike on Black Alert and what to expect for his first jump in the meantime.

“Spore Drive is ready, Captain.” Stamets informed them from the spore cube once he was prepped and the bridge darkened.

“Questions or concerns before we depart, Captain?” Saru asked the man who was too calm for his first jump.

“If you’re telling me that this ship can skip across the universe on a highway made of mushrooms, I kind of have to go on faith.” Pike shook his head, feeling a bit incredulous that he said that. Saru nodded and returned to his station.

“Be bold. Be brave. Be courageous.” Leaning back in his chair, he nodded at Airiam. “Black Alert.”

_“Black Alert coming online.”_

There was a familiar hum as the rings of the ship spun and the ship vanished in a second, reappearing at its destination in the next.

As soon as the ship exited the jump, two things were immediately eminent. One, there was a planet but no red signal. Second, they are smack dab in the middle of an unstable nebula.

Pike pushed aside the feeling of euphoria from his first jump and got out of his chair to have a closer look at the viewing screen, disbelief coloring his face which was mirrored by the crew. “Report!”

“Sensors show that we are right in the middle of a nebula but we and the planet are unaffected.” Michael paused and looked up from her screen. “Something is shielding the planet and by extension the ship from the nebula in a radius from the planet. But the computer cannot make sense of it.”

“And what about the signal? There’s no sign of it. Are we where we are supposed to be?”

“Affirmative. But like on the asteroid, it vanished when we got here.” Michael nodded as she analyzed the readings.

“Anything about the planet?”

“Class-M planet. No power signatures or starships in the area. Though with the nebula, it’s impossible to reach the planet by conventional means. No one is scanning us from the surface. But there is a lot of electromagnetic interference in the atmosphere. It would be impossible to use the transporters to get down to the surface.”

“Any life signs, Mr. Saru?” Pike cocked his head at the other Commander.

“There is. However, it is difficult to determine their species. The EM interference is affecting our scanners to a degree. There are also signs of civilization in various parts of the planet.” Saru paused as the scans showed something else. “It appears that there is an unusual energy signature on the planet.”

“Can you pinpoint it?”

With a nod, Saru messed with the computer for a few seconds and pulled up the location on screen.

“Magnify it.” Pike to Owosekun.

“Yes sir.” She nodded and zoomed in as far as the computer’s scaners would allow. Showing on the screen now was a man-made satellite that was surrounded by a forcefield keeping it upright in an open field.

“That satellite looks like one of the old models that Earth once used pre-WWIII.” Detmer frowned in confusion which was mirrored on the captain’s face.

“Scans show that the satellite is at least 250 years old.” Saru spoke up to collaborate with the pilot’s statement. This made everyone in the bridge to exchange baffled and bemused looks.

* * *

Later in Pike’s ready room, Michael and Saru were summarizing everything that they had learned about the satellite.

“There is no registry that we can see to match it in Earth’s database, nor is there any record of this model of satellite used by Earth.” Michael started.

“But then again, much of Earth’s records of the early 21st century was wiped out by World War III. We have to assume that Earth’s database is unreliable in this case.” Pike pointed out. “Is there any chance that this satellite did not originate from Earth?”

“The materials used to build the satellite definitely came from Earth.” Saru shook his head.

“And the people of the planet, you are certain that they are not human?”

“Yes sir. Though I am unsure of how the satellite traveled all the way here from Earth, there is no signs of humans on the planet. It was only thanks to the spore drive that we got here. It would take humans more than 200 years to get here if they traveled since warp was invented.”

“We have no idea if the beings of the planet are even capable of warp. So we have to assume General Order 1 applies. But the Federation needs answers about the signal.” Pike tapped his finger on his table thoughtfully. “Why did that second signal want us to come here?”

“As science officer, I would advise restraint in ascribing motivations to what are now simply unidentifiable energy bursts.” Michael interjected.

“ _’There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio.’_ ” Pike simply said why staring out his window.

“I know my Shakespeare, Captain.” Michael said, not understanding the reason for the quote. “Are you suggesting that some kind of…divine intervention put the satellite on the planet?” She asked with expected skepticism for a science officer and Vulcan raised person.

“I assume you’re familiar with Clarke’s Third Law?” Turning back to face his officers, he gave Michael a meaningful look.

“Yes. In the 20th century, Arthur. C Clarke said that any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

“The law was debated by scientist and theologians alike and later reinterpreted to say, any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.” This drew more skeptical looks from Michael and Saru. “I have no idea how or why it’s here. But I highly doubt it is by accident.”

“Certainly a bold interpretation, sir.” Michael smiled.

Smiling back, Pike rounded the table to get back to business. “What else do we know about the planet?”

“It is largely covered by forests on one half of the planet and the other half looks to be some kind of settlement. However, the interference is strongest around the settlement and I highly advise against going there unless we are able to determine if the beings settled on the planet are hostile or not.” Saru told them. He tapped on his PADD and showed the canopy of the forest. “I would like to also note something unusual about the forest.”

He tapped on his PADD again and this time there was a light filter over the screen. “There are flashes of light coming from under the canopy. There could be more settlements in the forest. But I am certain that there is no settlements near the satellite.”

“Thank you for your input, Mr. Saru. Finding out how that satellite got here might shed some light on the nature of the signals themselves. And until we can determine if the beings of the planet are capable of warp, we will stay out of sight from them.” Turning to Michael, he asked, “Who is best suited to come with us to the surface, Burnham?”

Saru and Michael exchanged subtle looks at the captain’s willingness to join an away mission that did not have life-or-death consequences. Lorca literally pushed any missions to Michael or others on the science and security teams when investigating other planets, whether they were low risk or not. Pike on the other hand was willing to join missions and take risks where Lorca would shield away from.

Clearing her throat, Michael ran through the list of officers that could come with them to the surface. “As we cannot teleport onto the surface, we have to use a shuttle. I would recommend bringing Lieutenant Detmer to pilot the shuttle and Ensign Tilly for her engineering expertise.”

“Brief them and let’s move.”

* * *

“I’m so sorry, Michael.” Tilly shook her head to turn down the offer to join them on the away mission. “I want to come with you and check on the satellite but I already planned to do some research on the dark matter asteroid rock.”

Michael blinked and tilted her head. She knew that Tilly was most excited about studying the dark matter rock but she thought that she would be equally excited to study a pre-WWIII Earth satellite and find out how it got there.

Wringing her hands, Tilly glanced around to make sure no one was listening and whispered at Michael, “I’m trying to see if we can use the dark matter as a nonhuman interface for the spore drive so that Commander Stamets would not have to use it anymore.”

“There are others who can help do that while you are on the away mission.” Michael slowly said, not comprehending why Tilly sounded upset.

“You don’t get it. I have to do this for him.” Groaning, Tilly ran a hand through her hair. “Look, being in the network is hurting Stamets. I can’t exactly explain it but he looked very sad after the jump. It’s going to affect him badly if we continue to use him to power the spore drive.”

“I see.” Michael sighed. She offered her friend a comforting smile. “If anyone can figure it out, it’s you Tilly. But is there anyone else you can recommend to come down to the surface with us?”

“Um, Lt. Nilsson? She helps us out with the spore drive upkeep and I’ve seen her build a phaser out of spare parts.” Tilly said the last part with glee.

“Oook.” Michael slowly nodded. “Hopefully we do not need to use phasers in this mission. I’ll ask her.”

“Take care.” Tilly waved at her friend as she left to find her replacement for the mission. “And try to bring back a souvenir this time! I want to study the satellite once I’m done here.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confession, I’m trying to avoid using to many scientific terminologies as I am no expert in that area

_On the Planet’s surface_

A humanoid man stood over a large expense of farm land with his eyes in the sky. The man looked to be in his 60’s yet stood tall. Behind him was a quaint farmhouse with a small graveyard beside it. The man did not advert his eyes as the wind blew in his face, not even when a woman landed behind him. The woman who looked to be in her late 20’s was dressed in gold ceremonial Greek armor with a white cape and had a sword and shield strapped to her back.

“Clark?” The woman tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder. “You saw the red light too?”

“Yes. I saw it and felt the radiation that it emitted.” Clark, once known as Superman, said, not taking his eyes off the sky.

“Sensors show that it’s tachyon radiation.” A voice told them from a round device on Clark’s belt. Pulling it out, the man opened the device and the hologram of a man with cybernetic features popped up.

“What does tachyon radiation do Victor?” The woman asked the hologram.

“It’s commonly produced as a byproduct of a temporal distortion Diana.” The hologram, Victor, explained.

“Remember the time we went through Savage’s time tunnel to fix WWII?” Clark suddenly spoke up. “It was emitting tachyon radiation.”

“So you’re saying that the light has something to do with time travel?” The hologram asked.

Clark and Diana exchanged concerned looks. When it comes to time travel, nothing good ever comes out of it. Clark suddenly tilted his head and fixed his eyes in the sky again.

“A ship just dropped into the atmosphere.” This made Diana look at him sharply.

“Do you think that…? Victor, can you scan them?”

“Not without giving away that I am.” Victor tilted his head and gave them urgent looks. “The Watchtower is being scanned.”

Clark gave them slightly worried looks but then shook his head. “Even if they try to get into the Watchtower, it’s shielded by you and Arion. And Arion has guards monitoring it and the area. If they are hostile, Arion will call you for help.”

“If you are sure.” Diana obliged but still looked skeptical. “What if they are from Earth?”

“Then we remove them.”

* * *

_Discovery Shuttle Bay_

An hour after the announcement for the away mission, Michael and Nilsson made their way to the shuttle bay where Detmer and Pike were prepping one of the shuttles for the mission. Michael relaxed minusculy when they got closer and heard her friend exchanging piloting stories with the captain. After what happened with Lorca, it was good that Keyla was warming up to Pike.

“Captain, Ensign Tilly requested to remain behind to study the dark matter rock. I requested Lt. Nilsson to take her place.” Michael nodded at the blond haired engineer beside her.

“Captain.” Nilsson shook the man’s hand.

“Pleasure to have you on board Lieutenant. “Is this your first mission?”

“Yes sir.”

“Shuttle is prepped and ready to fly sir!” Detmer called from the pilot seat.

“Let’s strap in then.” Pike and the other two officers took their seats and strapped themselves down. It did not take long for Detmer to power up the shuttle and fly out of the shuttle bay. From her position, Michael could see the planet from the window. It was a beautiful sight with the purple and greens. Saru found that at certain hours, the forest glowed purple with the light coming from under the canopy. He has yet to determine what causes the glow or if it is dangerous or not. But from the view in space, it was a sight to behold.

“Wonder what we’ll find down there.” Detmer murmured as she flew the shuttle down into the atmosphere.

“Hopefully we don’t encounter tentacled cows.” At Pike’s comment, the other officers gave him a weird look. Pike gave them a slightly amused smile. “It’s something my crew from the _Enterprise_ and I encountered in our five-year mission.”

“I see.” Michael and Nilsson exchanged queasy looks at the thought that tentacled cows exist.

“Entering atmosphere.”

What should had been an easy descent on to the planet’s surface ended up being not. As soon as the shuttle hit the atmosphere, a wave of energy emitted from the planet and hit it, causing turbulence. This shook the passengers of the shuttle and for some reason, feel nauseous.

“Report!” Pike yelled at Detmer as she struggled to straightened the shuttle.

“Some sort of energy burst from the planet!” Detmer yelled back but sounded strained, like she was trying to keep herself from throwing up like everyone else. Flipping several switched, she called, “Activating stabilizer thrusters.”

The thrusters helped stabilize the craft and their descent went back to normal…Until they flew close to the forest canopy level and the proximity alarm sounded.

“Three lifeforms coming right at us. Sensors cannot detect any craft approaching.” Michael told them.

Pike shook his head from the co-pilot seat. “I don’t see anything!”

It was then Detmer suddenly blinked. She shook her head and squinted at something out the window. Her eyes suddenly widened and she jerked the shuttle to the right, throwing the crew to the side.

“Lieutenant Detmer!”

“There was something! Pegasi!” She gasped.

“Pegasi?” Michael frowned as she and Nilsson looked outside but not finding anything. Michael focused her gaze on where the sensors say the lifeforms are but there is nothing. But she did catch a flicker in the light at the spot.

“I think whatever they are, they are cloaked. But our sensors are not detecting any technology that can create that cloaking.” Nilsson said, having realized the same thing Michael did. “But, peagsi? As in winged horses Pegasus?”

“Yes!” Detmer snapped but instantly regretted it. Her hand flew to her mouth to prevent herself from puking. Her face was ashen with a sick green pallor and had a sheen of sweat. Her normal eye was twitching badly, something that went unnoticed by Pike.

“Lt. Detmer, are you alright?”

“My cybernetic eye. It’s registering the cloaked Pegasus but my normal eye is not.” She replied queasily.

“The conflicting signals from the differing sights from two eyes is affecting her brain.” Michael realized.

Pike grabbed Detmer by the shoulder and made her look at him. “Listen to me Detmer. If your brain is telling you different things about what you see, focus on the controls. Trust Burnham to guide you and follow your instincts.”

Slowly, Detmer nodded. She turned back to fly the shuttle but this time, her eyes were fixed on the controls, trusting Michael and her captain to navigate her.

“Two more lifeforms coming in from starboard side. 500ft to collision.”

With that warning, Detmer had sufficient time to fly out of the way.

“You’re doing great Keyla.” Michael gently praised her while keeping an eye on the radar.

“300ft until we reach determined landing point. Beginning landing procedures.” Detmer’s fingers flew over the controls to prepare the shuttle for landing. The alarms then sounded again, this time as energy bolts were fired at the shuttle, several hitting shuttle.

“We’re hit! I’ve lost control!” Detmer panicked as she scrambled to regain control of the shuttle.

“Find out where the attack originated!” Pike called at Michael who was already working on it.

“They came from the forest. But it makes no sense. We’re too far away to have been detected and for them to aim.”

“I’ve regain control!” Detmer managed to get the shuttle straightened and fired the stabilizer thrusters to cushion their landing. The crew jerked as the shuttle crashed thankfully on a flat expense of land.

Coughing as he straightened up, Pike quickly surveyed his crew. “Is everyone alright?”

“We’re ok.” Nilsson nodded with Michael. Detmer flashed them a grin but quickly turned to the other side to throw up her lunch. Grimacing, Michael went over and pulled her hair out of her face as she emptied her stomach.

“Are you alright Lieutenant?” Pike leaned over to see if she’s injured.

“Lingering nausea.” Detmer gasped out. Between Pike and Michael, they managed to get her out of her chair and lie down on one of the benches.

“Here.” Nilsson handed Pike a hydrospray she got from the medical kit. “This should help.”

Pike accepted the hydrospray and injected its contents in Detmer’s neck.

“The shuttle has sustained significant damage. It’ll take time to fix.”

“We don’t have any other way back to the _Discovery_. How long will it take?” Pike asked her.

“About a day? Many longer?” Nilsson sounded unsure as she reviewed the shuttle’s diagnostics.

“Get to it. Detmer will remain here until she’s feeling good enough to stand on her feet. Burnham, you’re with me.”

“What about whoever attacked us? Won’t they try to find us?” Nilsson frowned, not liking the idea of being left alone with only Detmer. Leaning out against the entrance, Pike did not find any sign of their attackers and observed their environment. They were out in the open and were vulnerable to attack.

“Can we call the _Discovery_?”

“Negative sir. The EM interference is making it impossible to get a signal out.” Michael shook her head from where she was fiddling with the controls.

Pike sighed and rested his hand on his elbows. “I told Saru to send a drone down to check on us if we do not report back in three days.” Looking back at his officers, he nodded. “We just need to stay alive until then. Nilsson, if anyone other than us get close to the shuttle, take Detmer and run to the satellite to find us.”

“Yes sir.” Nilsson nodded quietly, still not happy with the decision.

* * *

_In the forest_

The dark forest was light up only by the glow from the special flowers, mushrooms and moss native to the planet, home of the mythical creatures once from Earth. One fairy was hoovering over the ground as he examined a cluster of mushrooms glowing purple at the base of a tree. He was a young one wearing a blue tunic and black pants. He wore a silver diadem on his wispy brown hair. Grey eyes sparkled as the glow subsided.

“Your majesty.” Another fairy approached him, this one in red robes and armor. “The craft that spooked the Pegasi crashed near the Watchtower. Our scans show that there are four people onboard.”

“I see.” The fairy prince straightened with a frown. “Any word from Clark?”

“No.”

“Funny, I thought he would be the first to know that a spacecraft is approaching the planet. I guess it means he trusts us to take care of it. Where are they now?”

“Two went to the Watchtower. The other two remained behind in the craft.”

“Tell the men to set a perimeter around the craft. I’m going to see the ones heading for the Watchtower and send them back to the shuttle. Be prepared to move on my mark.”

“Yes, your majesty.” The guard bowed and disappeared in a puff of silver smoke.

Closing his eyes, the fairy prince pulled on a cloak and drew up the hood. A crossbow materialized in his hands. “Clark owes me one for this.” With that, he too vanished in a puff of smoke and rematerialized not far from the Watchtower.

Still unnoticed, he observed the two for a while as they ran devices he assumed are scanners over the shield. Aiming his crossbow at them, he deliberately allowed his steps to carry over to them. They stiffened and in one fluid movement he was familiar with warriors like Diana, they pulled out their gun-like items and pointed at him.

“Step away from the Watchtower. You’re not welcome on our planet humans.” The fairy prince said coolly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Superman and Wonder Woman here are largely inspired by Kingdom Come. At this point, Clark and Diana have given up on humanity following the atrocities committed in World War 3 and the events leading up to it. Not a lot of heroes from the Justice League era will be appearing since it has been 250 years since then, just those that are likely to live for more than 2 centuries.  
> I also included mythical creatures as they play a part in the timeline leading up to World War 3. It will be revealed soon. Their magic usage is based on Once Upon A Time.


	3. Chapter 3

_Moments earlier_

Michael and Pike did not take long to reach the satellite. Up close, the structure was more impressive and towering. Michael noted several indentations and marks that could not have been made by space debris. She ran the tricorder over the shield and frowned at the readings. “The shield is made of pure energy. It’s going to be difficult to penetrate it.”

“Is there any way to disable it?” Pike glanced at her.

“I don’t know.” Michael frowned. “There is nothing to indicate point of generation or any technology to create it.”

Pike suddenly became apprehensive. “Burnham, if it is one thing I learned from my time on the _Enterprise_ , the planet that _looks_ to be the least technological progressive is the one hiding their more advance tech from us.”

Michael became uneasy at that. “Are you suggesting that the natives of this planet are more progressive than we initially thought?”

They froze as footsteps sounded behind them. Whipping out their phasers, they pointed them at the hooded figure pointing a crossbow at them.

“Step away from the Watchtower. You’re not welcome on our planet humans.” The hooded figure said coolly. Their voice sounded otherworldly and melodic yet harsh at them. Michael and Pike exchanged alarm looks and Pike raised his hands to show that he means no harm.

“My name is Christopher Pike. And this is Michael Burnham. We came across your planet while investigating a signal and found this satellite on your planet. We got curious as it is Earth tech from the pre-WWIII era.”

Despite the hood, Michael could feel the person’s piercing eyes on them. Their stance did not relax even when Pike holstered his phaser and motioned for her to do the same. Their hand that was not holding the crossbow flicked.

Michael could not describe what happened next. One moment they were at the base of the satellite when they were swallowed by white smoke. And the next they were back in the shuttle, this time with the hooded figure. Nilsson and Detmer jumped at their sudden appearance and the former jabbed her phaser at them.

“Nilsson, it’s us!” Michael snapped before she accidentally shot them. Nilsson blinked as she registered that it was her crewmates. But when she saw the hooded figure, she became on guard again. Where she was lying down, Detmer scrambled to sit up right.

“Who is that?”

“We don’t know.” Pike held a hand at her to stop them from acting rashly. He turned back to the person who suddenly brought them back here. That was not the teleportation from transporters for sure. Pike is on the edge in case the hooded figure attacked him or his crew. Though they did not have the crossbow pointed at them anymore.

Reaching up, the figure pushed back his hood. Pike was slightly taken aback by how human he looked, save for the pointy ears.

“No human, let alone spacecraft is supposed to come to our planet. The journey is too far for them and nebula would turn them away. Tell me, how did you reach Mythos?” He spoke again, this time less cold with a hint of curiosity.

Pike wondered if there was any point to uphold General Order 1 at this point. Despite not knowing if they are capable of warp, they clearly have their version of transporter and defensive technology not dissimilar to the Federation’s. Also, the person before him was evidently very aware of the planet’s planetary situation.

“We have a spore drive that allows us to travel instantaneously across the galaxy through the mycelial network. It allowed us to jump directly to your planet without going through the nebula.”

The boy cocked his head, feeling more curious of this method of transport and if it had anything to do with the sudden glowing of the forest’s mushrooms.

“Before I continue explaining who we are, I want to know something about you. How do you know about Earth?” Pike raised an eyebrow at him.

The boy smiled lightly at him. “I can tell that the lot of you are scientific people. You would not believe me if I told you.”

“Try us.” Michael challenged.

“If you say so.” The boy shrugged. He unclipped his cloak, letting it pool at his feet. The Discovery crew gasped as the boy shook his transparent dragonfly wings out.

“I am Prince Arion of the fairy clan of Mythos.” Arion gave them a slight bow.

Pike’s mouth was agape as he stared at the wings protruding from the boy’s back. He closed and opened his mouth, “You are a fairy, like the ones from Earth?”

“We are the ones spoken in your myths. We fairies are beings of magic that are connected to Earth. The Fae were originally from Mythos but travelled to Earth and lived among humans for many centuries. However, following a catastrophic event, we retreated from Earth back here and never set foot back there again.” Arion simply explained.

“But magic?” Michael frowned. “There is no scientific explanation to back up magic.”

“Then call it energy manipulation if you want.” Arion snarked. Shaking his head, he lamented, “Has it really been so long since we left that humans no longer believe in the impossible?”

“I think the scientific debate about magic would be interesting if it was carried out. But I would like to ask about the satellite I believe you called the Watchtower. Did you bring it from Earth to your planet?” Pike interjected.

“No. But it’s not my story to tell.” Arion shook his head. “And the less you ask, the better. Take your shuttle and return back to your spacecraft. No one will tolerate your presence here for long.”

“The shuttle will not be going anywhere in its current state.” Detmer spoke up for the first time. “It’ll take us a day to fix it up.”

“Then get to it. I won’t hold you up any longer. And stay away from the Watchtower and the forest. I will not hesitate to confine you lot in here if you wander too far.” Arion said as he turned to leave.

“I understand.” Pike nodded before Michael could argue. “But before you leave, I need you ask you this. Do you know anything about a signal that appeared over your planet?”

This made Arion freeze in his steps and look back at the captain. “Tell me more about this signal.”

“We don’t know what it is but it is the second of the eight that spontaneously appeared over the galaxy a while back then disappeared. We investigated the first signal that remained one a week back and the second signal appeared here. That’s what led us to your planet and we found the Watchtower.”

Arion looked thoughtful for a moment then decided to reveal to them, “There was a burst of red light in the sky earlier. But for the specifics of what it is, I need to inquire around. I will do my best to give you an answer before you leave.”

“Thank you.” Pike nodded gratefully at him.

Arion nodded back and exited the shuttle. As soon as the door closed shut behind him, a guard appeared in front of him with a bow. “Your majesty, Sir Clark and Lady Diana wish to have a word with you.”

“I know. Maintain your perimeter and make sure they don’t leave.” Arion instructed the guard.

“Yes your majesty.” The guard bowed and returned to his position.

Arion dismissed his crossbow with a flick of his wrist and vanished in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Diana and Clark were unfazed by the column of silver smoke that formed before them, dissipating to reveal a disgruntled Arion.

“Is there any reason why you did not inform me there is a spacecraft hoovering in Mythos’ orbit?”

“I believed you can handle it. What is your impression of them?”

“They’re from the Federation that Earth is now a part of.” Arion simply said. This made Diana scrunch up her face in concern.

“If they inform this Federation about Mythos, they will come back. Or make us go back to Earth.”

“Unlikely.” Arion shook his head. “The Federation has this rule where they are not supposed to appear before societies that have not invented technologies that allow them to travel at hyperspeed, or warp speed, as they call it. If they want to continue to uphold that, they will treat this incident as an accident and prevent future visits.”

“How do you know this?”

“Unlike you and Diana, the fairy clan is not completely disconnected from Earth and we do keep up on the happenings of Earth.”

“They may not leave us alone if they learn that we have that technology from our Justice League era. Or that the Amazonians have furthered the technology by integrating it with magic.” Diana pointed out.

“Even so, I believe that if we ask them to leave us alone, they will.”

“Your faith in this Federation can be dangerous.”

“Arion.” Clark suddenly cut in, making Diana and Arion forget their argument and look at him. “Find out what they know about the Justice League. And when they leave, give them a warning to not to come back or tell their Federation about us. We will not hesitate to attack next time.”

“That is a bit extreme isn’t it?” Arion frowned.

“Mankind cannot be trusted on their word. Perhaps with this Christopher Pike, but his subordinates and comrades, they are another matter.” Diana said scornfully. “Mankind has proven over and over that they will not change. They will always be selfish, always be greedy and always be violent.”

“Diana. Everyone is entitled to their believes and Arion and his fairies are no exception. If he wishes to hold on to hope in humanity, it is none of our business. However, that does not mean that he can expect us to change our minds regarding the matter.” Clark told the Amazonia sternly.

Diana huffed out in disgruntlement but inclined her head apologetically at Arion. “I’m sorry Arion.”

“It’s fine.” Arion accepted the apology. He turned to Clark with a frown. “The reason why they came here in the first place is because of the red light. Giving them information we’ve obtained about it will make them leave faster. Did you and Victor find out anything about it?”

“Nothing much. The Watchtower did capture an image of the red light though. I’ll have Victor send you a copy with the data we have to give them.” Clark grunted.

“Thank you.” Arion bowed his head. Stepping back, he prepared to return to the clearing when he spoke up quietly that only thanks to his enhance hearing could hear. “You do have a silver of faith in humanity or you would have chased them away by now.”

* * *

“I can sense that you are unhappy Burnham.” Pike spoke calmly. He was well aware of the science officer’s fuming as they repaired the shuttle. When Arion left, Michael wanted to stop him but Pike prevented her.

“We cannot simply leave here without answers. The satellite is from Earth and Arion refused to tell us why and how it got here. It could still have records of what it recorded of Earth like weather patterns, natural disasters, and maybe more.”

“I understand your frustrations Burnham. But we cannot force Arion to give us those answers.” Pike tried to placid her.

“And don’t forget that he can use magic.” Detmer pipped in from where she was under the console, now feeling better without anything to confuse her cybernetic eye and normal eye. “He’ll beat you before you know it.”

“I do not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically proven. He could be using tech that is not dissimilar to Starfleet to teleport us.” Michael retorted.

“I’ve heard stories from my grandma from her grandma. She used to tell us that people with magic and superpowers used to roam Earth and protect mankind.”

Michael opened her mouth to dismiss the pilot’s absurd tale when Pike intervened. “Alright, enough with that. Burnham, we might not be getting what we came here for but I do not want to provoke hostilities with Arion, his people and the other mythical creatures. If my hunch is right, they are best left alone and away from the Federation.”

Michael frowned at that. She did not get a chance to say more when Nilsson entered the shuttle with a nervous look.

“Captain Pike, Arion is back. He said that he wants to speak to you.”

“Right. I’ll be there.” Pike nodded and motioned for Michael to follow him out. “Whatever happens here Burnham, I trust you to follow my lead.”

“Yes sir.” Michael sighed.

Outside, Arion was hoovering a few inches off the ground with his wings fluttering behind him. He glided closer to Pike when he descended the ramp.

“Christopher Pike. Michael Burnham.” Arion inclined his head at them. He held up his palm and with a flash, a data pad appeared, which he held up. “The data of the red signal.”

“Thank you.” Pike reached for the offered data pad but Arion abruptly pulled back at the last second.

“But I want something in exchange.” He said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Belatedly Pike remembered in the myths, fairies love playing tricks on humans. While Arion has been harmless until now, it was a reminder that Pike should remain on guard around him.

“What do you want?” Michael asked the young fairy cautiously.

“I want your word that you will never set foot on Mythos again or tell anyone about us once you leave.”

Michael clenched her jaw at that. “Why?”

“We are wary of humans. If you tell anyone about our existence, they will try to come here to see us or hunt us. And there are beings on this planet that are less tolerant than I am against humans, or other aliens that invade our planet, and have decreed that they will attack any ship that enters our orbit. Not to mention that if they try to navigate through the nebula, without your spore drive, they will only get blasted apart to bits. You’ll be doing them and us a favor by keeping us quiet.”

“I see.” Pike slowly nodded. “Unfortunately, I cannot hide your planet from the Federation, not if I want to try to convince them to have your planet and the nebula labeled as a restricted zone that no one can enter on the penalty of death.”

Michael was startled by this. “They can do that?”

“They have once on a planet my crew and I visited once. It was too dangerous for anyone to visit as the natives…let’s just say that they can make you go insane.”

“That is acceptable.” Arion relented. He handed the data pad to Pike. “There is one thing I have been curious about for a while and I hope you would enlighten me. Does Earth remember anything from the early 21st century before World War III?”

“No, almost all of our history from that era was wiped out during World War III. There is barely any record left behind and it’s almost as if everyone forgot what happened then after World War III.”

Arion hummed but narrowed his eyes. “So you are saying that that era’s history is lost.”

“That is why we need to study that satellite. It could be a piece of the puzzle to mankind’s history. Can you please let us study it and see if it has any record of what happened to Earth in that time?” Michael explained eagerly.

Seeing this, Arion’s features softened. “I see.” He huffed and glanced up at the sky in thought.

“Burnham.” Pike quietly admonished her.

“Sir, I am not sorry for speaking up. But we have to at least try one more time to convince him.”

“Like I said before, it’s not up to me.” Arion interjected. “But I see how much it means to you. I can take you to see the ones who put me in charge of safeguarding the Watchtower. If you can convince them to give you access, I will be very impressed.”

Michael and Pike exchanged looks and nodded at Arion.

“Thank you. Please give us a moment to inform our other crew members.”

“Of course.”

As Pike and Michael made their way back inside, Pike gave Michael and knowing smile. “I guess it pays to be persistent.”

Michael returned it with a smirk. “I learned from the best.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Michael is raised on Vulcan, but as a Xenoanthropologist raised by Vulcans, I imagine that Michael is eager to solve the mystery behind Earth's missing history.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I drew inspiration for the fairy forest from Pokemon Sword & Shield Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle.   
> PS. I completely made up the scientific explanation Arion gives about his planet. It’s not accurate at all so don’t take it seriously.

Nisson and Detmer were understandably upset and wary that their captain and science officer were leaving again. But Pike reassured them that they should not be in any trouble and asked them to continue with the repairs. By Nilsson’s estimation, they should be done by the next day as long as she can build a component needed to fix the engines. Based on what Tilly said about her building a phaser from spare parts, Michael believed that she can do it. 

When Pike and Michael returned outside, Arion motioned for them to follow him into the forest instead of transporting them to their destination like they expected.

“The people I am bringing you to see would not appreciate it if I suddenly showed up with you even though they know by now that you are coming.” Arion explained when asked. As they went deeper into the forest, Pike and Michael had their breath taken away by the amazing sight of the fairytale forest. Arion lightly touched a flower and it started flashing pink. As if the other flowers, moss and mushrooms resonated with the flower, also started flashing in pink, blue, and purple. It was every bit of what the myths described a fairy’s forest to be.

“Amazing.” Pike breathed out.

“The fauna is a natural source of light since the canopy block out any light from outside.” Arion explained as he led them down a worn path.

“There is no sun since the planet is in a nebula. How is it that there is still light outside for the trees to photosynthesis?” Michael questioned.

“I could simply say that it’s magic, but I get the feeling the scientist part of you would not appreciate it.” Arion smiled playfully. “The radiation of the nebula and the electromagnetic field in the atmosphere have a vital part in that. The radiation interacts with the EM field which created EM radiation that mimic a yellow sun’s rays. Our planet also has a day/night cycle dependent on the timing which the nebula releases its radiation on the planet.”

“How does that work?”

“When the nebula releases its radiation, it triggers a night cycle as the EM field takes hours to convert the radiation to EM radiation. This also triggers what you call aurora lights. Once converted, it becomes the day cycle. And in the middle of the cycle, the fauna has to expel excess radiation, which is the wave of energy your shuttle felt when you entered the atmosphere.”

“Is it harmful to us?” Pike asked, suddenly concern.

“I don’t know. No human has ever tried to come here. So I’d suggest you have your doctors check you once you return to your spacecraft.” Arion shrugged. “That wave of energy then becomes a shield for our planet against the more harmful radiation and nebula storms.”

“Fascinating.” Michael muttered. Pike smiled secretly, knowing that his science officer, much like her brother would if he were here, enjoyed learning about the mysterious planet.

“I wish we could have brought Nilsson and Detmer to see this too. Or even the other scientist on our ship.” Pike said wishfully.

Arion did not give any visible reaction but his wings hitched and tensed at the last bit. “Remember that you promised that you will never return to Mythos. And I do not appreciate having scientist tearing apart our fauna and our physiology for answers they will never get.” He reminded tightly.

“Right, of course.” Pike said smoothly. It occurred to him that perhaps the fear of being experimented is what drove the mythical creatures to become what they are today, myths.

They soon came up to the end of the path where there was a light at the end. Unfazed, Arion stepped out with Pike and Michael following. The two humans had to blink as they stepped out and waited for a few seconds to clear. They found themselves at a farmland with two very unhappy people with crossed arms glaring at them.

“Diana, Clark.” Arion inclined his head at them.

“Arion.” Clark said sternly. “You know what I told you.”

“You could have stopped me the moment I proposed this. Don’t deny that you are curious about them.” Arion arched an eyebrow at him. And the three superpowered beings knew that it was true. Addressing Pike and Michael, Arion waved at Diana and Clark. “This is Diana, queen of the Amazon’s who once resided on Earth and Clark, one of the few surviving Kryptonians in the universe, and also raised on Earth.”

Pike and Michael were stun and visibly disbelief. Pike however composed himself. As the captain, he had to push aside his curiosity for the sake of diplomacy.

Stepping forward, he addressed them with confidence he doesn’t fully feel. “My name is Christopher Pike of Earth. And this is Michael Burnham. We were tasked by our superiors to gather information about the signals that appeared over the galaxy. And one of them happened to bring us to your planet and we found your satellite. We wish to study it as it holds a piece of Earth’s history that was wiped out by World War III.”

“No.” Diana immediately denied. She approached Pike, stance aggressive. “The Watchtower contains technology too powerful even in our hands. Mankind has proven time and time again they cannot be trusted with that kind of power, as proven with World War III.”

“Your highness, I mean no disrespect, but it has been 250 since then. Technology and mankind have evolved since then. Earth can handle the technology you have.” Michael risked stepping forward and meeting her eyes when she said that. Diana’s piercing gaze shifted to her and Michael shuddered. It felt like those eyes were seeing through her soul.

“You had yet to be truthful of who you are to us. I will ask you think only once, who are you?”

Something in Diana’s tone told them it would be unwise to hide their affiliation with the Federation, despite needing to uphold General Order 1. But for some reason, Pike felt it would not matter for them. If they were once from Earth and were truly storing dangerous technology in the Watchtower, they were more advanced than he perceived.

Swallowing, Pike slowly nodded. “You are right. We haven’t been honest. But it is for a reason. Earth is now part of the United Federation of Planets, an interstellar union of planetary governments that operates semi-autonomously under a single central government based on the principles of universal liberty, rights, and equality. Under the Federation, Starfleet was established to further its deep space exploratory goals and act as a first line of defense for the Federation. But we have a rule that we cannot show ourselves to civilizations…”

“That have yet to develop Warp technology or a version of it.” Clark unexpectedly cut in.

“Their General Order 1.” Arion nodded.

The shocked look on Michael’s face slowly morphed into indignant. “You knew! This whole time, you knew we are Starfleet!?”

“Yes. Like I told you before, the Fae have a connection to Earth. We use that connection to monitor Earth’s advancement as a precaution.”

“You didn’t tell us because you were testing us.” Pike narrowed his eyes in realization.

“Yes.” Arion nodded and waved at Diana and Clark. “You have confirmed something we have been suspecting since you crashed here. If Earth did have its records of the early 21st century before World War III, you would have recognized me when I first showed myself to you or the Justice League.”

“…What?” Michael said faintly. “You’re saying that the Kryptonian was on Earth in the 21st century? That can’t be true. Earth’s first contact with extraterrestrials was with the Vulcans in 2063.”

“And what is the Justice League?” Pike pressed.

“It was an organization comprising of many superpowered individuals to protect mankind.” Clark said quietly. “We protected Earth from superpowered villains and hostile aliens in our era.”

“Until World War III.” Diana continued darkly and gave the humans a dark glare. “It was then we saw the depts of mankind’s evil. The very people we swore to protect ended up turning against themselves and us. Even the villains we fought were horrified by the atrocities committed and tried to help us stop it. But the American government we worked with chose to kill us off to continue your war.”

“No, that can’t be true.” Michael refused to believe it.

“The Instigators.” Arion spoke ominously, making Pike and Michael look at him. “All the events Diana described and the events leading up to World War III were the works of the Instigators.”

“Who are the Instigators?” Pike narrowed his eyes.

“No one you should know.” Clark dismissed him. His eyes were haunted as he spoke. “I tried to help mankind and give them hope. But all I got in return was seeing children killed.” His fist clenched tightly. “That was when I realized, mankind will continue to make the same mistakes. War is more important to them than peace.”

“250 years in, it is clear that this is still correct.” Diana sighed. “The Federation’s war with the Klingons is proof of that.”

Arion subtly eyed Michael as she tensed and Pike’s eyes flirted to her worriedly. He then turned to Clark and Diana and subtly changed the subject. “Is that the reason why you won’t let them into the Watchtower?”

“Yes. There are many things in there that can be too dangerous in mankind’s hands, no matter how far their technology had advance. The Instigator erasing Earth’s memory of the Justice League is a blessing in disguise.”

“…We understand.” Pike sighed. “We won’t ask to access the Watchtower and leave your planet alone.”

“Thank you.” Clark nodded on Arion who nodded back.

The fairy turned to the humans and gestured for them to follow him back into the forest. But Michael remained where she was standing.

“Wait.” She said, making Clark and Diana look at her. She gave them a determined look. “Yes, humans make mistakes. But that does not mean we cannot work to redeem ourselves and fix our mistakes. We grow stronger because we face them, not back down from them.”

Diana and Clark’s expressions were unreadable. Arion ventured over and tugged on Michael’s arm. “Come.”

Diana and Clark continued to stare at Michael until she was out of sight.

“She reminds you of someone?”

“It’s scary how she reminded me of Bruce at that moment.”

* * *

It was nearing night fall by the time they made it back to the shuttle. The trek was spent in silence as the Starfleet officers tried to wrap their heads around the fact that much of Earth’s history as they knew it was wrong. It was when they were nearing the shuttle that Arion spoke up.

“They don’t trust mankind. But that does not mean that they have given up on you.” At Michael and Pike’s questioning looks, Arion elaborated, “Diana, Clark and I…we risked our lives so many times to save humanity in the past, because we care about Earth, we love the people we help. But after everything, they became traumatized by mankind’s actions.” Signing deeply, he lifted his eyes to the darkening sky. “Diana and Clark never gave up on humanity, but they gave up on fixing their mistakes.”

“I get it. But there’s something I want to ask you.” Pike turned to him with a careful look. “How is it that all of you managed to live for over 250 years?”

“Fairies can live up to 1000 years. I’m only 328 years old.” Arion shrugged. “As for Diana, Amazonians age slower and are more likely to die in combat than from age; and Kryptonians can live longer as long as the circumstances are right.”

Stopping at the perimeter, Arion waved for them to continue back. “When you get back to the Federation, remember to keep your promise.”

Pike palmed the data pad that Arion gave him about the signal in his pocket. He wondered if their secrecy was worth the data now, especially after learning about the Justice League. While their story is unverified yet, it would mean a lot for Earth if their history is revealed to the world.

As Arion turned to leave, he paused and glanced back, surveying the area. He muttered something in a language Pike and Michael were not familiar nor could the universal translator make out and snapped his fingers. A pit fire then appeared not too far from the shuttle.

“The night will be very cold. Hope this will help.”

“You have been helping us since we landed on your planet but claim to be distrustful of humans.” Michael frowned.

“The Fae are neutral towards humans but respect the other mythical creature’s views on humanity. And perhaps I’m selfish, but I want to help Diana and Clark remember what humanity can be at their best.” With that, he teleported away.

Exchanging looks with the exhausted science officer, Pike gestured at the fire. “We might as well make ourselves comfortable.”

“Yes sir.” Michael sighed

* * *

Nilsson and Detmer were wide eyed as they listened to Pike and Michael recount their meeting with the Amazonian and Kryptonian. They were sitting around the fire while munching on rations. Nilsson just finished building the part they needed so they will install it tomorrow to get the shuttle up and running again.

“Wow. I wish I could have gone with you now.” Detmer said in awe and excitement. “I mean, an Amazonian! And a Kryptonian! My grandma’s grandmother’s stories were real!” She lightly punched Michael’s shoulder.

“But from what you told us about them, they are probably right to be cautious about Starfleet.” Nilsson spoke up quietly. At everyone’s enquiring looks, she elaborated, “Remember when Admiral Cornwell wanted to destroy Qo’nos with the hydrobomb?”

“What?!” Pike looked at them in shock. The three ladies froze and exchanged horrified looks. They were not aware that ‘that’ particular part of their mission to the Klingon home world was classified.

“Admiral Cornwell was desperate to end the Klingon war following the destruction of Starbase 1.” Michael finally decided to explain to their interim captain. “We were not aware that we were planting a hydrobomb in the planet’s core until it was nearly too late.”

“We then pulled a ‘Michael’ to make the admiral to reconsider the plan.” Detmer grinned at her friend.

“She means nearly committing mutiny.” Nilsson clarified. “So instead, we gave L’Rell the detonator to force the Klingons to end the war.”

“It’s a good thing you stopped them when you did.” Pike said after a while of silence. “I would not have brought the Enterprise back to Starfleet if they did commit genocide.”

“Neither would we.” Michael said with equal determination that was shared with Nilsson and Detmer.

Pike offered them a smile, not for the first time honored to serve with such good officers.

Detmer blinked and looked up to the sky. “Look!”

Everyone followed her gaze to the beautiful Aurora Lights that took their breaths away.

“It’s too bad we cannot come here again. It’s like a fairytale planet.” Nilsson pulled up her legs and rested her chin on top her knees. Everyone knew they felt the same. But they had to respect their promise to Arion and never come back. Even so, they enjoyed the moment now of tranquility before they had to return to Discovery.

* * *

_Unknown Location_

The barren planet far, far, away from Federation space was a hostile one where no human can survive. The ruler of the planet watched as the Parademons flew over the lava pits, wreckage of various star ships, and skeletons of the former enemies of New Apokolips.

“My Lord.” A figure bowed behind the ruler. “Our spy in the Federation has no new information about the signals that appeared over the galaxy, though they are investigating the second one. The one that appeared over New Apokolips has not reappeared since it first appeared. However…”

“I have no interest in hearing the obvious.” The ruler growled impatiently.

“Yes my lord.” The figure lowered his head. “We do have news on Kal-El and his companion though.”

This got the ruler’s attention. He loomed over the massager with a menacing aura. “Speak.”

The figure swallowed before speaking. “We were investigating the planet where the second signal appeared, at your command. We found that the last Kryptonian has settled there with a small settlement of the Amazonians of Earth.”

The ruler’s crimson eyes flared up at the news. A cruel grin spread across his face. Stepping back, he turned to another figure hiding in the shadows. “Steppenwolf!”

The warrior stepped out of the shadows and bowed before the ruler. “My Lord.”

“Take the Parademons and attack the planet Kal-El is hiding on. This will serve as a warning to him and his allies: I am back.” The ruler threw back his head and laughed. All the Parademons and his generals over the land stopped what they were doing and bowed in his direction.

“All hail Darksied!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Parademons follow New 52 design. And I’m very bad in describing fight scenes. I also probably nerfed Steppenwolf a lot.

_On Mythos_

Dawn came and Nilsson installed the part in the shuttle engines. After running the diagnostics, Detmer flashed their captain a thumbs up. “All systems green.”

“Good.” Pike nodded. Looking out, he saw Arion loitering around with his guards. He decided to talk to the young fairy one last time. “I’m going out for a moment.”

This crew stared at he left the shuttle. Sighing, Michael nodded at Nilsson. “Good job Lieutenant. Let’s get everything organized while waiting for the captain to come back. Detmer, get the shuttle fired up.”

The two lieutenants nodded and got to work. Michael’s gaze lingered outside for a while before helping Nilsson replace the tools used to repair the shuttle.

* * *

When Pike approached Arion, the guards behind the young prince tensed. But Arion waved his hand. “Give us some privacy.”

“Yes your majesty.” The guards bowed and retreated a few feet away.

Arion gave the captain a polite smile. “I was hoping to catch you before you left.”

“We just repaired the shuttle. So, we will leave your planet and go. I already got the data on the signal which is why we came here in the first place anyway.”

“I hope you find out what those signals mean.” Arion inclined his head. “Diana and Clark never said this, but I can tell they have misgivings about what it could mean. Also, I hope that in the future, they will remember that humanity is more than what they see.”

“I hope so too.” Pike smiled lightly and extended his hand to the fairy. Arion smiled back and raised his hand to accept it. Suddenly, he froze and darted his head up, wings hitched and tensed.

Pike froze and quickly followed his gaze. There was nothing there…until a loud boom and flashes of light. “What is that!?”

“Boom tubes!” Arion materialized his crossbow. “Captain, you need to leave now! Guards, sound the alarm and call the Amazonians!”

“What’s happening?” Michael came out of the shuttle to investigate the boom tubes with Nilsson and Detmer close behind her.

“Nothing good.” Pike muttered as he jogged back to the shuttle. Sure enough, menacing, armored, winged creatures dropped out of the boom tube. “Burnham, any idea what those creatures are?”

“I never seen them before!” Michael pushed the other two lieutenants back in the shuttle. She glanced out the window and pointed at the fairy prince who was shooting down the ones that tried to attack him with his crossbow. Several of the creatures were also attacking the guards. “But they are attacking the fairies so they’re hostile.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Pike said grimly. He grabbed a phaser and called out to Detmer. “Detmer, pilot the shuttle to the boom tubes and scan what you can while shooting anything that comes out of it. Nilsson and Burnham, you’re with me. We’ll give the fairies cover fire.”

“Aye sir.” Immediately, Detmer was situated back in the pilot’s seat while Nilsson and Burnham armed themselves with phasers.

* * *

“Where is the Honor Guard?” Arion snapped at one of the guards that just entered the fray.

“Assembling! The Amazonians are on their way!” The guard reported as they fought off the Parademons back to back.

“And Superman?”

“No sight of him yet…and the humans are joining the fray.”

“What?!” Arion jerked his head at the shuttle that was taking off. But Pike and his comrades were still on the ground, firing their guns at the Parademons. Swearing slightly, Arion teleported over to them.

“You should have gone back!” He snapped.

“Sorry, but we won’t abandon you and your people when you need help. That’s who Starfleet is.” Pike smirked.

Groaning, Arion threw up his hands in defeat. “Fine. But tell your friend to get away from the boom tube. There’s something coming, I can feel it. And it will kill her if she stays too close to the portals!”

Pike nodded and flipped open his communicator. “Pike to Detmer, change of plans. Shoot down the creatures but stay away from the portals!”

_“Got it!”_

The shuttle veered away from its original course from the portals and shot down several Parademons. On the ground, Pike and his crew continued to shoot the Parademons along with Arion and his guards.

“Aim for the exposed part of their armor. And don’t hesitate to kill them. They are sentient-less creatures who only obey their master.”

“Like a hive mind.” Michael realized. “If we take down their master, we can stop them.”

“No, he’s not here.” Arion however shook his head grimly. “I know who their master is and he isn’t here.”

“You fought them before?” Nilsson grunted as she slammed the butt of her phaser against the faceplate of a Parademon that got past their defenses. However, it barely reacted and backhanded her, causing her to fall and drop her phaser.

“Look out!” Arion yelled out a warning as the Parademon spewed fire at Nilsson who was frozen in place. She shut her eyes in fear and braced herself for the flames to burn her. But it never came.

Slowly, Nilsson blinked open her eyes and gasped. In front of her was an armored lady who was protecting Nilsson from the flames with a bronze shield. Not wasting a moment, Nilsson grabbed her phaser and fired shots right at the Parademon, killing it.

Glancing back, the woman frowned at her. “Are you alright?”

“…Somehow.” Nilsson said shakily as she pushed herself up. Around them, the Amazonian army burst out of the forest to join the fray, slicing up the Parademons with their weapons. Some were on foot while others were soaring in the sky on Pegasi.

“Diana!” Arion called her over. Straightening up, Diana flew over to Arion’s position, slashing at another Parademon that was sneaking up on him.

“Watch your back!”

“I know you got it covered.” Arion smirked at her. “The Honor Guard is delayed taking care of another portal that appeared near the Watchtower. Can your sisters help us maintain the line here?”

“What do you take us for?” Diana smirked back. “Where is Clark anyway?”

“He hasn’t showed up.” Arion grunted. “And I don’t think he will.”

Swearing, Diana put in more power into her next swing, decapitating a Parademon with her sword. “And who is leading the attack on Mythos?”

“He hasn’t shown himself yet.”

“We might need Clark when he shows up.” Diana spoke uneasily, something Arion agreed with her.

Up in the sky, Detmer’s experience and piloting skill showed as she fired the shuttles weapons at the Parademons while maneuvering around the Pegasi, careful not to collide into them. Thankfully they were not cloaked or her eye and cybernetic implants would hinder her flying. Her scanners beeped, drawing her out of her concentration. Her eyes widened as she read the readings.

“Captain, I’m picking up an immense power signature coming out of the main portal!”

_“Stay away from it lieutenant. I have a bad feeling about what’s going to come out of it.”_

“Aye sir!” She steered the shuttle clear from the portal. Some of the Amazonians had the same idea as they guided the antsy Pegasi away. But a handful remained, weapons poised to take down whatever came out of the portal.

Before Detmer could blink, something shot out of the portal, axe in hand, and cut down the Amazonians even before they could raise their weapons. The bodies of the fallen warriors fell off the startled Pegasi. On the ground, Diana watched in horror as the bodies of her sisters fell onto the ground. Glaring at the one who did this, she hissed when she recognized him. “Steppenwolf!”

“No!” Detmer cried as she fired the shuttle’s phasers at the monster that was now attacking the other warriors and Pegasi close to her. This averted its attention to the shuttle. With a roar, Steppenwolf leapt off the Pegasus he was just killed straight for the shuttle.

Detmer barely managed to turn the shuttle to avoid Steppenwolf from crashing into the front which he would have killed her. Instead, it went through the side of the shuttle and came out through the other side.

The Discovery crew could only watch in horror as the shuttle lost power and careened to the ground.

“Detmer!”

“Keyla!”

* * *

“Are you sure you can just stand here and do nothing while Diana and Arion are fighting the Parademons?”

Clark did not look at a cross Victor hologram from the device he left on the porch of the farmhouse.

“The humans stayed back to help too.” Victor added, looking somewhat disbelieve that they chose to remain behind to fight the Parademons. This made Clark tilt his head at him in curiosity.

“Anyway, I’m nearly done programing the Motherbox to bring the Parademons back to…wherever they came from, probably not Apokolips, and then close up. But I need at least a few more minutes.”

“Can you afford to talk to me while doing that?”

“I can split my attention, benefits of being an AI now.” Victor said in annoyance. He suddenly paused as he received information from the Watchtower’s scanners about a New God coming through the boom tubes. From the looks of it, Clark heard whoever it was as well.

_“Steppenwolf!”_

Clark narrowed his eyes at Diana’s hiss. Victor also knew who it was as well and glared at Clark.

“Even with Arion’s help, Diana will not last long against him. It took both you and Diana to defeat him last time.”

“I cannot take up the costume again.” Clark shook his head, knowing that the cursed memories of the last time he wore the costume will return to haunt him if he did. The last time he wore the costume, he arrived to Mythos in the Watchtower, Lois and Jon with him, and the shield blood soaked. He was so broken he refused to leave his room for months or speak to anyone about what happened on his last day on Earth, not to Jon, not to Diana, not to Arion, and not to Victor. Lois, his dear wife, may she rest in peace, did her best to take care of him and Jon while adapting to their new environment that was their refuge from the horrors of Earth. And Diana refused to leave him alone either no matter how much he tried to push her away. He will forever be grateful for both women’s care for him during those dark times.

Victor knew how much the shield haunted him but raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “Even if it means letting Diana’s sisters and Arion’s fairies be slaughtered? Or the humans who remained behind to help them?”

“Victor…” Clark trailed off and jerked his head when the screams of the humans reached him.

“Stop being afraid of what Superman cannot do. You will regret what you are not doing even more.” Victor advised him. “They need Superman, whether you like it or not.”

There was no response from Clark for a second. Then in a blink of an eye, he was gone and there was a red and blue blur flying at high speed towards the battleground.

“Go get them Superman.” Victor grinned and his hologram vanished back to the Watchtower’s interface.

* * *

The battleground was in chaos when Clark arrived. He honed onto the shuttle that was close to crashing with one heartbeat inside.

Clark did not hesitate to fly inside through the hole Steppenwolf created. Immediately he was shot, not that it really hurt but it stung.

The pilot’s eyes were wide with her gun pointed at him. They stared each other down for a second. Clark was briefly unnerved by the cybernetic implant at the side of her skull and her eye. Before he could say anything, the pilot blinked and recognition flooded her eyes, and Clark could not understand it.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry I sot you!” The pilot lowered her gun. That was strange. Just a moment earlier, she was prepared to shoot him again or fight him if he tried to pick her up. The shuttle jerked, bringing them back to the reality that she was going to die if Clark didn’t do anything.

With that in mind, Clark swept her into his arms. The pilot yelped but held on to him with her free hand.

“Hang on. I’m getting you out of here.” Clark flew out of the shuttle just as it crashed.

“Oh, wow.” The pilot said woozily as Clark settled her down in a clear part of the battleground. As Clark was preparing to fly off to help Diana and Arion, he noticed she was staring at his shield symbol.

“You’re…You’re Superman.” The pilot breathe out.

Clark jumped in surprise at that. “How…?”

“My grandma’s grandmother used to tell stories about you, and Wonder Woman.” Her gaze went over to Dina who was now engaging Steppenwolf. This reminded Clark that he had a job to do.

“We can talk more later. I need to go help her.” Clark said as he hoovered off the ground. The pilot grinned and nodded. Jumping back to the fray, the pilot ran over to join her crewmates while firing at any Parademon that came her way with deadly accuracy; Clark flew over to Steppenwolf and Diana’s position while firing his heat vision at the Parademons. Less were coming out of boom tubes now that Steppenwolf was on the scene.

Diana was holding her own against Steppenwolf but the Parademons kept on sneaking attacks on her. Arion and his fairies were doing their best to keep the Parademons away from them but Clark can see that they are getting worn down.

It was at the moment Diana was locked weapons with Steppenwolf that a Parademon was sneaking up behind her to stab her with its claws.

“Diana behind you!” Clark called as he picked up the speed. Diana was aware of the attack coming from behind but Steppenwolf did not relent his attack to give her an opening for her to defend herself.

Clark was prepping his heat vision to take out the Parademon when someone fired energy shots at the Parademon’s head. It shrieked as it turned its attention to the one who shot it, and Clark’s heart dropped when he saw that it was Pike. For all that he was fast, nothing can compare to how fast the Parademon spewed fire at Pike.

“No!” Clark yelled as he darted over to the Parademon and fired his heat vision right through its head. Throwing his head up, he yelled, “Arion!”

Said fairy instantly materialized beside him. He took in the sight of a burnt Pike and immediately dropped beside him. “I got him. Help Diana!”

Growling, Superman jumped at the New God, anger rolling off him in waves. Diana sensed this and wisely jumped out of the way in time as Clark landed before Steppenwolf. He fired his heat vision at full blast at the warrior who blocked it with his axe, but pushed him back several meters.

“Steppenwolf! This ends now.” Clark said lowly.

Steppenwolf however was not intimidated. He threw back his head and laughed. “No. This is only the beginning! The prologue of Lord Darksied’s return!”

As one, Diana and Clark attacked him. They were long in sync with each other’s fighting style that their moments were almost a dance with all the slashes and punches. Arion watched them grimly while stabilizing the captain’s condition. It was a good thing Clark called him over in time. Pike will need more extensive medical help but for now, Arion will keep him alive.

_“Arion!”_ Victor’s voice came from his belt. Arion flipped open the device, showing Victor’s hologram. “I managed to program our Motherbox to send them back. It’ll suck up the Parademons but Steppenwolf will have to be thrown back into the boom tubes.”

“Got it!” Arion nodded. Cupping his hands over his mouth, he called out to Diana and Clark. “Get him into the boom tube! Vic is sending them back!”

“With pleasure.” Diana smirked. She tossed her sword to Clark and unraveled her lasso. Her eyes met Clark’s and they shared a nod. With a mighty cry, Clark sliced off one of Steppenwolf’s helmet horns, inciting an angry roar from the New God. Steppenwolf’s axe was swung down at the Kryptonian. But Clark was not having any of it. He fired his freeze breath at the axe and parried the blow with Diana’s sword which broke it.

“No!” Steppenwolf cried in anger. “You think this will stop me?!”

“No. But it distracted you.” Clark raised an eyebrow. Instantly, Diana wrapped her lasso around the warrior. Steppenwolf screamed as he tried to break free to no avail. Up in the sky, the Parademons were being sucked back into the boom tubes.

Diana flew up with Steppenwolf on the other end of her lasso. Swinging it around, she grunted as she released him in the direction of one of the portals. Clark followed up by punching Steppenwolf and threw him inside the portal.

“This is not over yet! Darksied will see that you will suffer!” Steppenwolf cried out as he was sucked inside.

“And we will be ready.” Clark uttered as the portals closed up once all the Parademons were gone. Diana flew up to him and squeezed his hand. He returned the gesture and pulled her into a hug. “We’re going to be ready, for whatever comes our way.”

“Yes.” Diana breath out as she leaned into the hug. “We will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter was slightly delayed because I had several job interviews over the past few days. But I got to watch Wonder Woman 1984 last night. It was so epic! I promise I won't spoil anything but it kind of influenced me to change a few things in my planning for future chapters. It won't reveal anything about the movie and I will not use any elements from it for now, at least until next year. But my focus will be on Wonder Woman more than Superman because of this.


	6. Chapter 6

Pike knew the Parademon’s retaliation was coming but could not get out of the way of the fire in time. He cried out in pain as the fire burned his face. His vest protected the worse of it from his torso but he can still feel the heat burning his chest. He vaguely registered the Parademon dropping dead and someone approaching him.

Despite the pain, he scrambled for his phaser…or what was left of the melted metal. His ammo was used up with that last shot which was a good thing or it would have exploded and he would be dead instead of wounded. But it also meant he was defenseless against whoever that was approaching.

“…Stay still Pike.” He managed to register those words from the approaching person. He slowly recognized that it was the fairy prince’s voice.

“…Arion?” Pike rasped out but it hurt his throat to speak.

“Yes.” His bleary eyes saw the fairy bob his head. “And don’t speak. I’m going to make sure you do not die today.”

Pike initially flinched when warmth spread over his face. But he relaxed when he realized it was easing the pain, not worsening it. He knew that Arion was speaking to some sort of device and yelled something at Diana and Clark. But it was becoming too tiring and painful to retain consciousness. So he closed his eyes and drifted off, barely hearing Michael, Detmer and Nilsson yell his name.

* * *

Diana and Clark landed at Arion’s position as Michael and her crewmates crowded Arion and Pike. Arion looked up and gave them a grim look. “He won’t last long even with my help if we don’t get him to Neo Themyscira for medical help.”

“I know.” Diana sighed. Michael turned to her with pleading eyes.

“You can save him?” Michael grasped the Amazonian queen’s arm in desperation. It was because of that Diana did not pull away.

“I…”

One of the Amazonians who looked similarly to Diana stepped up with a frown. “Wait sister. You cannot let this outsider into Neo Themyscira, much less a human.”

“He saved my life, Donna. As such, I am honor bound to at least heal him. Once that is done, Clark and I will decide what we will do with them.” Diana then addressed Arion, “Take them to the healing chambers and tell the healers to help him. I will return with the rest of the wounded soon.”

Arion nodded and with a flick of his wrist, he, Pike and the ladies vanished in a puff of silver smoke. Donna’s features hardened and she gave her sister a glare.

“You do realize that once you show them our technology, they are less likely to leave us alone.”

“We do not have that option anymore if Darksied is back.” Diana glared up in the sky where the boom tubes were. “Our numbers are severely diminished since the last time we fought him and his army. And without the support of New Genesis, Starfleet and the Federation might be the next best choice for allies.”

“She’s right.” Victor spoke from the device that Arion left behind for them. “Donna, Earth might have changed since we left. These people could have fled for safety and avoid the Parademons, but they chose to stay to help us fight. And their leader even saved Diana.”

Donna pursed her lips and turned to Clark. “And you? What do you think about this?”

Clark did not answer her immediately. Instead, he stared at the direction where the Watchtower was. A few moments later, he finally spoke, “I want to talk to them first before making up my mind. But we might not have the luxury of anonymity and seclusion any longer. Steppenwolf said this attack was just a prologue. Darksied is back and he is coming for us. We cannot afford to fight him if we need to divided our attention between him and the Federation.”

“So, a temporary alliance?” Diana asked.

“Yes. Once we deal with Darksied, we can decide on our next step with the Federation.”

“Or we can join the Federation.”

The three superpowered individuals glared at the hologram. Victor held up his hands defensively. “What? At least we can set the terms of what happens to us if we join rather than becoming science rats. We also will have more control over who comes to Mythos if we show ourselves to the Federation on our terms rather than letting another group come here without warning again.”

“…That is a fair point.” Donna begrudgingly admitted. “However, I still advise caution with the Federation and the people they already have here.”

“That is a given.” Clark grunted. Floating up, he waved around the battlegrounds. “But right now, we have to get the wounded to Themyscira and find Arion.”

Everyone nodded and started helping the injured Amazonians and fairies to a group so that the able fairies can teleport them back to Themyscira. Donna meanwhile was supervising another group of Amazonians to gather the bodies of the deceased for a funeral that will be held later that night for both fractions.

“It’s a wonder we did not suffer worse losses.” Diana sighed as she helped the last of the wounded into a circle with Clark joining her.

“I know. But Darksied did not send his best. To him, this was supposed to be a message for me. Steppenwolf and his troops are merely bait.” Clark reminded her.

“Indeed.” Diana pursed her lips. Once everyone was in position, she nodded at the fairies. They waved their hand to teleport the group back to the Themyscirian healing halls. There, the healers were waiting with field kits and stretchers for the more serious cases.

“Where is Arion and the humans he came with?” Diana asked one of the passing healers.

“In the recovery hall. The man just finished undergoing the healing ray treatment.” The healer hesitated before adding, “May I ask how long will they be here?”

“Just until the man is well enough to get back on his feet. I owe him a life debt so make sure that he is well.”

“As you wish your highness.” The healer reluctantly bowed and hurried off to take care of the incoming wave of patients. Diana and Clark made their way to the recovery hall, not minding the stares and wary glances directed at them.

“How long do you think it’ll take for them to riot over the humans?” Diana asked quietly.

“The sooner we find a way to get them away from Themyscira at least, the better. But we are going to have to figure our how we are going to get them back to their spacecraft. Their shuttle was destroyed in battle.”

“Arion could send them back. Or Victor. But the Motherbox technology can be dangerous in the Federation’s hands.”

“Agreed. But do you think they proved themselves worthy of the Watchtower’s secrets?”

Clark paused in his steps. Diana waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts. A sigh and Clark shook his head. “I do not know, not anymore.”

Diana hummed as they continued their walk to the recovery hall. “Perhaps the conversation we have with them will determine that.”

They soon arrived at the recovery hall. Looking inside, Arion was talking animatedly with the pilot. The blond hair lady Diana saved was listening quietly but casting side looks at Michael and their captain. The stoic woman was sitting beside Pike’s bed where the captain was resting. Her head tilted at her companions’ direction to keep up with their conversation.

Stepping inside, Clark lightly cleared his throat to get their attention. Arion stood up and went over to them, not taking notice of the way the pilot straightened and Michael glancing at them.

“How is he?” Clark indicated at Pike.

“He’ll be fine.” Arion simply said.

Michael stood up from her seat and went over to them. She stared at Diana and Clark for a few moments and then bowed. “Thank you for saving him.”

“It is what I should do.” Diana finally said after a pause. “But he would not have been in this state if you had left just as the Parademons arrived. Why did you stay back?”

Michael straightened up at that and her two other companions came to stand beside her to support her next words, “Because we are Starfleet. We don’t turn our back to our fellow Starfleet brother or sister; or anyone that needs our help for that matter. We would not turn our backs on your people when we can help.”

Diana’s eyes were piercing again but she slowly nodded. “You speak the truth this time.” And she smiled, nodding at Clark who nodded back in confirmation. “You might have figured this out, but we are beings that are capable of telling when a person is lying or speaking the truth. For us Amazonians, the truth is the most integral part of our society. We live and speak the truth for to speak lies is to act selfishly, no matter your good intentions.”

“And for your truth and recent events, we are wiling to give you the benefit of doubt.” Clark spoke up as he placed a hand on Diana’s shoulder.

This made Michael and her companions blink. “Wait? Are you saying…?”

“That they are considering letting you have access to the Watchtower? Yes.” Arion grinned.

“We have a planetary counselors’ meeting to discuss Steppenwolf’s attack on Mythos and our next course with the Federation. You may remain here until then. I made it clear to my sisters that you are to be unharmed until we return.”

Michael’s mouth gapped open in shock but morphed into a smile. “Thank you for your help and hospitality.”

“I’ll see you guys when I get back.” Arion grinned at them. Turning to Diana and Clark, he waved his hand. “Do you want me to…?”

“No thanks. We can walk.”

“Alright. I’m going ahead then.” With a cheeky grin, Arion vanished in a puff of smoke.

“We will see you when we get back.” Diana and Clark nodded and went out the door. But they did not get far when someone ran out of the recovery hall calling for them.

“Wait!” Detmer panted as she caught up to them. Clark frowned at her, remembering that she was the one who knew who he and Diana were.

“You’re the pilot from the shuttle, Miss…?”

“Detmer. Keyla Detmer.” Detmer held out her hand with a grin, a photo clutched in her other hand. “I actually get to meet Superman and Wonder Woman! This is the best away mission of my life!”

“What…?!” Diana was visibly stun at this and turned to Clark who looked more curious than surprised. “You knew she knows who we are?”

“I only found out when we were fighting the Parademons, hardly an appropriate time to ask.”

“Fair enough.” Turning to face Detmer again, Diana frowned at her. “Your captain and friend confirmed that Earth does not remember anything from the Justice League, so how is it that you know who we are?”

“My grandma’s grandmother, Old Emma, used to tell her stories about you and the League. Even when Earth’s memories of the Justice League was erased, she remembered everything because of this photo.” Detmer showed them the laminated photo she was clutching. It showed Diana and Clark, in costume and less burdened by the wars they experienced, with a lady who strongly resembled Detmer and dressed in a pilot’s uniform of the early 21st century. They were posing together somewhere in the Alps and a cargo plan behind them.

Clark and Diana stared at the photo uncomprehendingly for a moment but remembrance slowly dawned on them as they recognized the woman and the plane.

“Old Emma used to tell my grandma about the story of how you saved her when she lost control of her plane and it was about to crash in the Alps.”

“I remember that day.” Clark murmured, lightly touching the photo. “There was an avalanche in a nearby village and we were called to help rescue the locals. Then there was a sudden change of weather that grounded all the plans which meant that there was no one to bring medical supplies.”

“But Old Emma was stubborn enough to try to fly out to deliver the supplies. And you two helped her land her plan safely.” Detmer smiled fondly as she remembered what her grandma told her about Old Emma. Flipping the photo around, she showed them the inscription Old Emma wrote on the back of the photo.

_‘To Superman and Wonder Woman, I promise to teach my children and their children to fly to help others. -Emma Detmer.’_

Breathing out deeply, Detmer tightened her grip on the photo. “I really want you two to know that Old Emma kept her promise. She and her son flew 200 children to Australia during WWIII for refuge. I’m flying the _Discovery_ for Starfleet to help other worlds that need it.”

“…I don’t know what to say.” Clark found his eyes suspiciously moist and he suspected that Diana was the same.

Detmer carefully returned the photo to her pocket and looked at them seriously. “Michael and Captain Pike told us that you no longer trust humanity because of what they did during WWIII and because of the Klingon War.”

She ran a hand across her implants in her skull and shuddered at the memory of the Battle of the Binary Stars where her exploding console caused her permanent injury. “I have every right to be angry because of the war for what it took from me and what it made me become. But I found that I didn’t change to become a monster despite everything. The fact that in the end, Michael, Saru, all of us, were willing to fight to uphold Starfleet’s core principles reassured me that I’m still, well, me. Humans, or just about anyone for that matter, make mistakes. But as long as we’re alive, we can fight to make them right again.”

“We know.” Exchanging looks, Clark and Diana knew deep down inside, they always knew humanity can rise again to bring out the best in them even after all that’s said and done. Mankind was capably of evil acts but there are those who will fight to overcome them, something they had forgotten as they changed from the wars and their isolation.

“Thank you, Keyla Detmer.” Diana finally smiled at her. “You and your friends have given us back the hope we once had in humanity and what they can be. And we will bear that in mind when we decided on our next step with the Federation. But I think I speak for both of us that you may have access to the Watchtower.”

Detmer was taken aback by this but slowly grinned. “Really?”

“We’ll have Arion bring you there once we are done with our meeting and walk you through Earth’s complicated history of the 21st century.” Clark smiled gently.

“Thank you!” Detmer gasped and bowed. “Thank you so much! I gotta tell Michael and Nilsson!” With that, she ran back to the recovery hall to deliver the good news to her friends.

_“Are you sure that this is a good idea?”_ Victor spoke up for the first time from the device in Clark’s belt

“They have proven themselves. At least if they learn about our history, they can learn how to prevent something like WWIII from happening again.”

_“You know that it was not the Justice League’s fault it happened. It was Luthor and Darksied.”_ Victor reminded them.

“Which is why it is better if Pike and his friends know about them now rather than later.” Diana turned her eyes to out the window and stared at the pinking sky. “I have a strong feeling that whatever Darksied is planning, it has something to do with these red lights or signals as Captain Pike calls it. It was probably how Darksied managed to find us.”

“It will be best to have Captain Pike as our ally, if not the Federation.” Clark said grimly.

_“Got it. But I’ll keep the Motherbox and other more dangerous tech locked up.”_

“That would be for the better.” Thinking about something, Clark added, “And add encryptions on the more sensitive files.”

“And what if Captain Pike needs access to them while investigating the signals?” Diana raised an eyebrow.

“Then they will need our representatives to go with them and decrypt them when necessary.” Clark smirked. Diana threw back her head and laughed when she realized what Clark’s plan is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, Donna Troy has appeared!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year to all my readers and I hope you had a great holiday in the midst of what is going on with the world right now. I finally managed to finish this chapter and it's a little longer than normal. I have to warn you all that as I go in to the history parts, I can accidentally leave out things so feel free to let me know if I do. At this point as they are going into the history parts, I think the quality of my writing is going to change a bit. And the S3 final is out. Go check it out if you haven't already.

When Pike returned to the land of living, the first thing that came to his mind is that Number One and Dr. Boyce must not know about this incident or they will lock him up on the _Enterprise_ for good. The other thing that he realized is that he did not feel pain. Which is probably a bad thing as being burnt alive meant that he was supposed to be in excruciating pain.

“Captain?”

Slowly Pike opened his eyes, flinching at the brightness. But he made out Michael’s form above him with Detmer peaking over her shoulder. Neither officers looked worse for the wear despite being in a battle earlier. Turning his head, he found Nilsson dozing off on a couch.

“Is she…?”

“Nilsson’s just exhausted. She is…not exactly used to combat.” Michael explained as diplomatically as she can without insulting the engineer.

“I get it.” Pike huffed. “How long was I out? And where are we?”

“Two hours, three minutes and forty-two seconds.” Michael answered the first question.

“We’re at Neo Themyscira, the part of the planet that the Amazonians occupy.” Detmer explained.

Pike blinked at that. “I thought Diana and Clark didn’t want anything to do with us.”

Detmer and Michael exchanged smiles and Detmer said with no small amount of glee. “Apparently saving the queen of the Amazonians means her people owe you a life debt so Diana offered to have you healed here. And I spoke with her and Clark about Old Emma, my grandma’s grandmother, and they agreed to give us access to the Watchtower.”

Pike was delightfully pleased with that. He was not sure what Detmer spoke with them about that made them change their minds but instead of asking, he decided not to ask. It was probably private. He tilted his head and turned to the door where a scowling Amazonian was observing them intently.

Clearing his throat, he addressed the Amazonian, “Is there something the matter?”

The Amazonian’s scowl deepened and she growled, “Don’t mind me. I’m just a glorified babysitter.”

“Ignore her. She’s been glaring and scowling at us for the past hour.” Detmer whispered. Pike slowly nodded at that, belatedly remembering Arion’s warning that not a lot of people were happy about their presence here. Settling himself back on the bed, Pike decided to try and relax while waiting for Diana and Clark to return. And pretend that the Amazonian’s glares were not intimidating him.

* * *

By the time Diana, Clark and Arion returned, Donna had moved away from the door to the corridor. She gave Diana a subtle nod indicating that everyone obeyed Diana’s order not to bother the Starfleet officers. Diana nodded back with a pleased smile.

Once inside, they found all officers awake and sticking close to Pike’s bed as they discussed matters about their starship that neither Diana nor Clark paid much attention to.

Clark cleared his throat to get their attention and addressed Pike. “How are you doing now?”

“All better, thanks to your help.” Pike nodded in gratitude at Diana.

“I owe you a life debt.” The Amazonian queen simply said. “It is my duty to honor that.”

“Regarding matters with the Federation, we cannot speak for all of Mythos or the Amazonians but the both of us are willing to form a temporary alliance with you to investigate these red lights that you call signals.” Clark told them with a serious frown. This made the Discovery Crew exchange looks.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to that. But may I ask why?” Pike raised an eyebrow.

Exhaling deeply, Clark and Diana sat down on an opposite cot while Arion remained standing. But Pike can see the tensions in their bodies and the fairy prince’s wings hitched high up.

“It is a very long story. The one who attacked Mythos just now was a New God named Steppenwolf.”

“New God?” Michael frowned in incredulity.

“A powerful, immortal race that evolved to a higher level than any other being. They have abilities such as superhuman strength, stamina, reflexes, invulnerability and speed.” Arion waved his hand over the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. Two images appeared on the mirror showing two groups of people.

Immediately, everyone saw Steppenwolf in the left group with a lot of equally menacing people as him. And on the other side were less intimidating people.

“The New Gods were divided into two fractions based on the planets they originated, New Genesis and Apokolips. These two fractions were constantly at war and Earth and the Justice League got caught up in it when Darksied decided to invade Earth.” The most terrifying New God then became the focus of the mirror.

“So you’re saying that there is this race of superpowered beings that exists and the Federation hasn’t learned about them before?” Pike said skeptically.

“Both New Genesis and Apokolips were destroyed 250 years ago.” Diana said gravely, making the officers stare at her quietly. “The rulers of both planets had created doomsday weapons to unleash on each other and destroy each other when their war renewed. And it did just that. Both side were decimated and we thought the New Gods were wiped out.”

“Until now. Steppenwolf’s attack indicates that there is a possibility that Darksied survived.” Michael realized.

“Yes.” Clark nodded. “We will take you to the Watchtower where you may remain for the rest of your stay. Arion will walk you through any more questions you have about the New Gods and the Justice League.”

“Once again, thank you.”

* * *

True to their word, the next morning, Arion arrived alone and found Donna starring inside the recovery hall. Peering over her shoulder, Arion stifled a giggle. Pike was attempting to get up from the bed despite his crew’s protest.

“Why is it that he managed to gain Clark and Diana’s respect?”

Arion looked at his long time friend with a serene smile. “That’s for you to figure out. Eventually.”

Donna gave the fairy prince a suspicious look. Being one of her oldest friends and working with him in the Teen Titans Dark, she knew his nature as a fairy meant that he had a penchant for mischief and trolling others.

“Why do I get the feeling you are up to something?”

“Me? No!” Arion mock gasped, placing a hand across his heart dramatically. His smile then became secretive. “But maybe you should talk to Diana and Clark eventually. Who knows? They might have some news for you.”

Donna huffed but decided against pressing the matter. She knew from experience that Arion will only continue to troll her. “So how did the meeting with the fraction leaders go?”

“Well enough.” Arion shrugged. “We are still undetermined if we want to join the Federation or keep them away yet. There are many factors to consider including the Supernatural Armistice. But for now, everyone agrees that we should figure out if the red signal has anything to do with Darksied. Diana, Clark and I volunteered to be the liaison to Captain Pike and their crew with the leaders…”

Donna raised an eyebrow at him when he trailed off. “But…?”

Arion glanced around and lowered his voice. “Diana and Clark have their own plans to do their own investigation. They are getting the _Justice_ ready.”

“Are they planning on going to the ruins of New Genesis then?”

“Yes. If Darksied survived, there’s a chance some of the New Genesians survived too.” Arion nodded. He then gave her a careful look. “How are you holding up by the way?”

“Fine.” Was Donna’s curt answer.

“Donna.” Arion frowned. He knew like every former hero of Earth that is currently on this planet, he knew the humans brought back memories of the wars that they were forced to fight for Earth and against Earth. And Donna did not have it easy like Clark, especially with the news of the _incident_ that traumatized Clark into leaving Earth.

“Don’t patronize me. Just do what Clark and Diana told you to do.” Donna hissed at him and stormed off. Arion heaved a heavy sigh. Despite what Donna might think, he too was badly affected by the horrors that the Justice League was forced to go through in its twilight years. But Donna was right that he had a job to do.

Straightening up and schooling his face into his slightly mischievous smile, he stepped inside the room and grinned at the occupants. “Morning. Glad to see you up on your feet.”

Pike gave the fairy a dry smile and nodded at his slightly exasperated crew members. “Thanks. They think I should take it easy though.”

“They are just watching out for you. Are you ready to see the Watchtower?”

“Yes!” Detmer cheered. The others were eagerly as excited as she is but more restrained than the pilot. Arion grinned at Detmer’s enthusiasm and decided not to keep them anticipating. With a wave of his hand, he teleported them right inside the Watchtower.

The Discovery crewmembers gasped in awe at the interior. Arion had brought them to the main auditorium’s control platform. Pike and Michael blinked at the first thing they saw.

“Are those transporter pads?” Pike pointed at the circular pad with six smaller circles, a similar design to Starfleet’s ships’ transporter pads.

“If you mean the thing we use to teleport our members back and forth from Earth to the atmosphere, then yes.”

Pike and the others jumped at the electronic voice while Arion rolled his eyes. “Vic, stop scaring them.”

A hologram flickered before them, showing a human male but with the majority of his body cybernetically augmented, including half his face.

“This is Victor Stone, also known as Cyborg…though we should consider changing your name since you’re an AI now.” Arion said thoughtfully.

“And now you’re the one confusing them.” Victor rolled his eyes back at the fairy at the crew’s confuse looks. So he started explaining to them, “I was once fully human but got into an accident that forced my father to replace most of my body with cybernetics. During WWIII, I got killed but my cybernetics allowed me to transfer my consciousness to the Watchtower and live the rest of my digital life as an AI.”

“Earth definitely did not have the technology for this degree of cybernetic augmentation before the Federation. And transporter technology was not invented until the early 22nd century.” Nilsson spoke carefully.

“The pre-WWIII era for us was filled with magic, advanced technology, superpowered villains, alien invasions, and high school drama. Anything impossible that you would not think cannot happen, happened.” Arion deadpanned. “And yes, I did try to go to high school disguised as a human. It’s not an experience I want to repeat.”

“At least you get to go to high school.” Victor said drily.

“Is it just me, or is the fact that fairies do go to high school weirder than an AI that used to be human?” Detmer whispered to Michael.

“It’s just you.” Michael whispered back, unable to take her eyes off of Victor’s cybernetics.

“Just so you know, having cybernetics advanced for pre-WWIII is the least weird thing that the Earth went through during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.” Arion said with glee, making Pike and Michael exchange wary looks. Just what on earth could have happened in the lost era that caused Earth’s technology to digress to the point of only being reinvented hundreds of years later.

* * *

Arion and Victor eventually brought the group up to a library. Along the way, Arion explained a bit of the Justice League’s founding history and Pike felt his head spinning. Earth had been subjected to multiple alien invasions from the likes of the Imperium, the now extinct Thanagarians, the Apokoliptians, and much, much more.

In the library, Victor activated a terminal and started to pull out files of reports, videos, photos and news pages for them as evidence of their claims. Pike and Michael immediately started going through all the files. The more they went through them, the more convinced they were that Arion and Victor were telling the truth.

The Federation will be having a field day once they verify Arion, Diana, Clark and Victor’s claims. From the looks of Michael, she was already having her field day. Her back was ramrod and her eyebrows knitted tightly together.

“Vulcan did not know about any of this?” Detmer asked her quizzically.

“No.” Was Michael’s tensed answer. And it was slightly understandable since Vulcans strived for logic. For almost 30 years of history to be simply erased and finding out that much of Earth’s known history was wrong was highly illogical.

“We haven’t even got to the supervillains and multiverse shenanigans parts yet. So don’t let your brain explode just yet.” Arion hummed. As though a switch flipped, the group startled when Arion mentioned ‘multiverse’. Seeing their reactions, Arion blinked. “Was it something I said?”

“You’ve experienced multiverse travel before?” Michael frowned.

“Yeah, the Justice League has a weird history with multiverse incursions and involuntary travels.” Victor pipped in. Another file opened on the terminal. When Michael tried to open it, she scowled when she saw that it was locked and heavily encrypted.

“Files like that require at least one member of the League’s authorization to access it. Luckily for you, I happen to be a member. Just give me half an hour.”

“I take it that the Federation has had at least one incident with multiverse travel?” Arion asked carefully.

Michael and Pike exchanged glances. The _Discovery_ ’s trip to the mirror universe is supposed to be classified. But since the Justice League had their fair share of mishaps with the multiverse, it was likely they can contribute more knowledge and insight to the matter to the Federation. Pike nodded at Michael to give her permission to explain.

“During the Klingon War, our ship accidentally traveled to a mirror universe during a mycelial jump where everything is in reverse. The Federation is an empire that conquers and destroys worlds and we are the villains. We later learned that our captain was secretly from this mirror universe and was trapped in ours in a transporter mishap. He was the one who messed with our jump coordinates to return there.”

Arion and Victor were quiet for a while. The fairy prince shook his head in slight concern. “It must have been hard. We had a few hard experiences but each of them helped us prepare for the next hostile universe.”

“A mirror universe…” Victor mused. “Do you think it could be the Justice Lords world or the Crime Syndicate world?”

“Does it matter?” Arion raised an eyebrow at the hologram. Rubbing his hand together he gave the Starfleet officers a sympathetic smile. “The multiverse has given us some trouble in the past, but I can assure you that not all worlds are hostile like the mirror universe you were in. Some of them have minor differences from ours in terms of technological progress, differing events that impacted their worlds differently, etc. But for the most part, if sufficient precaution and preparation is taken, it becomes easier to handle these incidents.”

“Is it possible to share the protocols the Justice League used for these situations?” Pike asked.

“I’m sure that Diana and Clark won’t mind if you copied the files on the multiverse…Do you also want to copy the information about Earth’s and the Justice League’s history?”

“We don’t have any devices to store the files since the shuttle was destroyed.” Nilsson reminded them.

Michael suddenly remembered something as well, “And we need to check in with _Discovery_ and let them know we are safe before they try to send another landing party.”

Pike pursed his lips in thought and turned to Victor, “Do you have any way for us to contact our ship? I need to talk to my XO before he thinks we’re in trouble.”

“We can use the comns at the control area. Using the Watchtower’s relay can ensure that the signal will get through the EM field.” Victor offered. “And we can also link our teleportation pads to your transporter pads so that you can teleport your data storage devices here and later go back once you’re ready to leave.”

“I’ll go and let Saru know that we are alright and we need several empty PADDs and he should not send down a rescue party.”

“That would be wise.” Michael nodded. “In the meantime, I’m going to continue to look through these files.”

“I’ll help.” Nilsson offered. Detmer on the other hand wandered to the back of the library where there was another room. Blinking, she stepped inside as the lights flickered on. The walls were practically wallpapered with portraits with various items on pedestals.

“This is the memorial room.”

Detmer spun around in surprise to find Arion fluttering behind her. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! I’ll leave…”

“No, it’s fine.” Arion shook his head as he glided inside. “Victor and I converted this room to honor the memories of the members of the Justice League and our allies.”

“There’s so many faces.” Detmer murmured as she looked through some of the photos of the costumed heroes. But there are a rare few that had un-costumed people.

“The Justice League was one of its kind. The founding members came together to fight as a team to deal with threats they cannot deal with individually. They fought to protect mankind and give them hope. They brought together and inspired hundreds of other heroes to follow in their footsteps, no matter they are alien, human, superpowered, or magical.”

Detmer managed a smile at that. “Sounds a lot like what the Federation is to us.”

“You can ask about them. This room is mean to celebrate and share the memories of the people.” Arion smiled comfortingly.

“Ok…” Detmer rubbed her hands together. She pointed at a bow and quiver full with arrows on a pedestal, figuring it was a safe starting point. “Can you tell me the story behind this?”

“That belonged to the hero Green Arrow who operated out of Star City.” Arion pressed a button on the pedestal and the holos of two people popped up with a brief bio below them. One was a man dressed in all green looking like Robin Hood while the other was a woman who had a blue jacket but Detmer could make out the toughness behind her eyes. Arion pointed at the holo of the woman. “And that’s Black Canary, his wife.”

“Green Arrow was a nonpowered human with deadly sharpshooting accuracy with his bow and trick arrows. He was initially reluctant to join the Justice League because he felt that he was more effective handling small crime. But I think Black Canary changed his mind.” Arion giggled. “He kept the League grounded and reminded them that they have a duty to be connected to the people they protect.”

“Wow.” Detmer whistled as she read their bio. “And what about Black Canary?”

“She’s tougher than most of the male heroes combine. Her training in martial arts made her one of the best hand-to-hand fighter in the League, matching evenly with Diana. But people who seriously underestimate her will be met with her ultrasonic cry, her Canary Cry.”

“How is it possible for her to have an ultrasonic cry?” Detmer blinked in surprise.

“In the past, there was this gene called the metagene that gave humans the ability to use various powers. But after WWIII, we think the gene went dormant as life and death situations on Earth was greatly reduced. From past experience, the metagene does not activate unless the person is under great stress or forced to activate the gene to stay alive.”

Detmer slowly nodded in understanding. Earth did not have many disasters since the Federation was established. And genetics was not her forte. It was Michael’s. She could probably figure out more about the metagene. And Dr. Culber would be interested in learning more about it too.

Her smile faded at the memory of the good doctor. He was her main doctor who helped her in maintaining and checking up on her cybernetics. He was also a good friend who made her feel at ease with her augmentation. Despite not holding it against Tyler, there are days she wants to scream at him, or rather Voq, for killing her friend.

Sensing the shift in her mood, Arion placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

Blinking, Detmer snapped out of her thoughts and shook her head. “I’m fine.” She pointed at another pedestal to change the subject. “What about this ring?”

Accepting the distraction, Arion grinned when he saw which one she was pointing at. “Oh that one. That one’s the Flash’s, the fastest man alive…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Donna’s addition to the fic is a last minute decision and the more I planned her background, the more I realized I’m making her more like Michael Burnham.   
> In this universe, the Teen Titans follow the cartoon’s roster with the main members being Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Raven, and later expending to the cartoon ending’s roster. Donna and Arion joined them a year after they defeated Brain. 3 years later, they created the Teen Titan Dark branch to handle the magical threats and are joined by Raven and several others.   
> Years later, most of the members of both Teen Titan branches graduated and the roster was filled by the Young Justice team that was established by Tim Drake’s Robin, Superboy and Impulse. Several former members of the Teen Titans who graduated formed the Titans team based in New York.  
> Cyborg received an invitation to join the Justice League once he turned 18 which he accepted. During the Apokolips-New Genesis war, he was the one to convince the members who remained on Earth to give the Titans and Teen Titans honorary membership to the Justice League as the Earth heroes were spread thin.


	8. Chapter 8

_On Discovery_

Saru is not panicking, or so he tried to convince himself. It has been two days since the crew of four went down to the planet and they were unable to establish contact with them. Per Captain Pike’s order, if he did not hear back from them in by tomorrow. However, the lack of contact that the sudden spike in unreadable energy on the planet made him reconsider. Even the bridge crew were getting antsy.

“Sir, should we send a team down to find the captain and the others?” Owo tentatively asked.

Closing his eyes, Saru wondered what should he now. Slowly, he opened his eyes and tried to emit a calm he did not feel. “Let’s give it two more hours. If we do not hear anything from the away team, Rhys, you lead a team to go down…”

“Commander, we have an incoming transmission from the surface. It’s Captain Pike’s ID code.” Bryce suddenly spoke up. The atmosphere on the bridge visibly relaxed as the crew exchanged relieved looks.

Saru leaned back in his seat and nodded at the comns officer. “Put it through, on screen.”

Bryce nodded and Pike then appeared on the viewing screen, looking none worse for the wear.

“Captain Pike, it is good to see that you are safe.”

“Yeah, we had an…interesting stay.” Pike smiled easily. “We managed to convince the natives to allow us access to the satellite. And we found some unbelievable facts about Earth’s history.”

“I see. We will look forward to your reports and the debriefing when you return then.” Saru eyed the captain critically. While he looked alright, the captain was no longer in his tactical gear and with his superior eyesight, he can see faint scars on his face. “When can we expect you to be back then?”

“Give us another day to get back to you on that. Oh, we found out that there is a transporter pad down here. Try to get a lock on its signal and send over some PADDs. We have a lot of data to download from the satellite’s computers. Once we are done, we’re going to have to beam back up.”

Owo turned back to Saru and nodded. “I got a transporter signal from the captain’s position.”

Saru nodded back and carefully asked though he was dreading the answer. “Dare I ask what happened to the shuttle? And does it have anything to do with the unsual energy spike on the surface yesterday?”

“It’s a long story. I promise we will brief everyone and Admiral Cornwell when we get back. Pike out.”

Well that can’t be good. For the captain to want Admiral Cornwell for the mission debriefing is not only usual, but means that what they found out in the mission was very important for high command to know as well.

“Sir?”

Saru glanced at Owo and nodded. “Tell Ensign Tilly to prepare the PADDs and beam them down. Let’s hope that Captain Pike and the others will come back with answers soon.”

* * *

After Pike ended the call to the Discovery, Victor’s hologram flicked beside him and nodded at the teleportation pads. “I’m getting a signal from your spaceship. Receiving.”

Within a few seconds, a bag filled with the PADDs Pike asked to be delivered materialized. Picking it up, Pike made his way back to the library, Victor’s holo following beside him.

“For a 250-year-old satellite, I’m surprise that the place is well maintained.” Pike remarked to the holo.

“I try my best.” Victor shrugged. “But it helps that I have Arion to help out with the upgrades and maintenance. Diana and Clark haven’t step foot in here since we came to Mythos. Too many bad memories.”

“I didn’t know a fairy is capable of engineering.”

“The magical creatures and the Amazonians had to adapt. They may not be tech savvy by tradition, but creating and improving new tech means better chances of survival in a new environment and changing galaxy. To this point, they even integrated magic into their technology.”

“Is that even possible?”

“You’ll be surprised by the number of things we did that were once thought to be impossible.”

As Pike got closer to the library, a thought occurred him that made him ask, “What happened to the Justice League that forced Diana and Clark to leave Earth?”

Victor became quiet until they reached the library and the holo turned to the captain. “Darksied and WWIII happened.”

The door to the library opened and Victor gestured for Pike to follow him inside. Michael and Nilsson stood up as Pike returned but when Pike followed Victor to the back instead of acknowledging them instead, they scrambled away from the terminal and followed Pike and Victor to the memorial room. Inside, Arion was explaining to Detmer some of the history behind the items on the pedestals and the members of the Justice League.

“Arion.” Victor spoke to get the fairy’s attention. “He’s asking about Darksied and WWIII.” He jerked his thumb at Pike.

Arion and Victor exchanged looks of a silent conversation. Finally, Arion nodded and materialized several armchairs and a sofa, sitting down in one of the armchairs. “If you want to know more about the Justice League’s twilight years and eventual fall, get comfortable. It’s going to be a long story.”

Exchanging looks, the crew sat down. A holo of a fireplace appeared on one of the walls and Victor sat down on a holo armchair.

“What?” Victor shrugged defensively when the Discovery crew stared at him. “I might be an AI but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a comfy chair, especially when Arion is in his storytelling mood.”

“Thank you for the introduction Victor.” Arion smiled with glee and rubbed his hands together, forming shimmering dust that drifted above them. “In the year 2006, Earth was invaded by Darksied and his Parademons for the final time. The Justice League mobilized with their entire roster and allied with the villains to take them down and drive them off for good. Fun fact, world ending invasions can make supervillains and heroes put aside their differences to protect Earth.”

The shimmering dust then formed into clouds that showed images of the invasion. Detmer instantly recognized some of them from Arion’s anecdotes. Seeing them in action with their powers was a sight to behold.

“Not the point. Skip to the ending of that arc. It’s more relevant.” Victor grunted.

“Fine.” Arion rolled his eyes. With a wave of his hand, the clouds condensate into a large one that showed Superman and Batman fighting Darksied. The crew blinked as they recognized Superman’s costume to be the one that Clark wore when he appeared to fight the Parademons and Steppenwolf. Detmer on the other hand knew from Old Emma’s stories and was not as surprised. But what caught her off guard was the show of strength from Superman as he amazingly punched Darksied all over the city.

“To cut the story short, Superman and Batman fought Darksied for a long time but were unable to subdue him. In the end, it was ‘He who’s name shall not be spoken’ who ended it by giving Darksied what he sought this entire time and reason for Earth’s invasion: the Anti-Life Equation.”

The sequence of the battle showed how Superman ended up immobilized by Darksied. The appearance of a man that offered something to him was however blurred.

“Who is that? And what is the Anti-Life Equation?” Michael frowned.

“One of the Instigators I spoke off days earlier. Clark always gets mad whenever we mention his name.” Arion explained though he did not answer her second question.

“But he’s not here.” Nilsson frowned.

“Superhearing, one of the many perks of being a Kryptonian.” Victor grinned with Arion.

“After taking the Anti-Life Equation, Darksied and ‘He who’s name shall not be spoken’ vanished without a trace. And without their leader, the Parademons retreated from Earth. And everyone celebrated what should have been an end…but ended up being the prologue of the downfall of the Justice League.”

“For 14 years, we had relative peace from the Apokoliptians and ‘He who’s name shall not be spoken’. The Justice League built their roster and more allies came around. All that came crashing down the day the High Father, the leader of New Genesis, came to the Watchtower to inform us of Darksied’s return, more powerful than ever since he absorbed the Anti-Life Equation.”

“You haven’t told us yet what the Anti-Life Equation is.” Michael reminded them in slight frustration.

“A formula to strip all sentient beings of their will so that they will obey only the one controlling the equation, aka Darksied.” Victor decided to explain since Arion was not. “He used this power to conquer a number of worlds and renewed the war with New Genesis. Since the New Genesians had helped Earth in the past by preventing Darksied from taking over Earth, the Justice League agreed to help them defeat Darksied and his army again. More than 50 Leaguers went to space to fight in the Apokolips-New Genesis, only a handful survived.”

“Clark and Diana spent 5 years in space leading the Leaguers to fight off the Parademons from various worlds and stop the Apokoliptian weapons trafficking that started because of the war. They lost several members in those battles. The largest casualty came from the final battle where they led a strike on Apokolips to try to kill Darksied once and for all. But when that failed, Darksied activated his doomsday weapon to fire on New Genesis. With no choice left, the High Father activated his doomsday weapon at Apokolips as well. Both planets, and presumably its inhabitants as well, were destroyed.” Arion added to the somber mood.

“The war also completely wiped out the Green Lantern corps and caused the extinction of several alien species.”

The cloud showed images of the planet Oa obliterated with the Main Power Battery blown up by Darksied, bodies of the various species of the Green Lanterns and the Guardians of the Universe spewed all over. Pike felt sick looking at the image. The Green Lantern corps was known by the Federation given how widespread they were across the galaxy. But until now, no planets knew exactly what happened to wipe out the Green Lanterns completely or they simply did not dare to tell the truth. The location of Oa was even lost to the Federation. Seeing the destruction that Darksied caused on the planet, he can understand why people are terrified to tell the truth if they knew it.

“It didn’t help that a year before Diana and Clark returned to Earth, the Instigator caused another Supernatural War to happen.”

Pike looked at Arion at that. “Supernatural war?”

“A war that happens when most mythical creatures get into war with each other. The results was pretty bad as many heroes in the Justice League who were supernatural or magic powered were forced to split away to deal with it before it spilled over to the human world.”

“Including you?” Pike raised an eyebrow.

“Including me. I had to resume my duties as the fairy prince to convince the Fae to stop the war. Many of my supernatural friends were forced to break ties with me to do the same for their fractions.” Arion sighed heavily. “We managed to get the Supernatural War resolved with an armistice but the conditions dictate that all the mythical creatures originally from Mythos leave Earth and never return under any circumstances.”

“…In other words, you were exiled from Earth to ensure peace.” Michael said uncomfortably, likely remembering the Klingon war and how it started.

“Not that peace lasted long.” Arion said unexpectedly bitterly. It was then Victor took over in explaining.

“Merely a week after the Supernatural war died down, a nuclear bomb was dropped on Gotham and World War III was declared.”

“Turns out the Instigator started the Supernatural war to distract and weaken the Justice League and their allies in order to initiate World War III and use it to control the world by manipulating both sides.”

“How is that possible.” Nilsson gasped.

“The Instigator took out Batman first.” Detmer realized. “My grandma once told me that Old Emma told her that the day Batman died, is the day that the Justice League will fall.”

“If you told me that before Gotham was destroyed, I would have said it was an overstatement. But when WWIII started, I would have taken that back.” Victor admitted. “Even when the Leaguers in space returned, the Instigator outsmarted everyone and was one step ahead. No matter how much the League tried to stop the war, he always found a way to continue it. He managed to have laws passed to outlaw heroes to prevent them from stopping the war and even have them killed by soldiers.”

“How did he managed to accomplish that? There is no way any government would stop any party from ending the war?” Michael gripped at the unanswered questions.

“The Instigator always had a charismatic charm that made people listen and believe in him. He’s like Darth Sidious from the Star Wars movies. He managed to convince the public that the Justice League was the reason for the war when he was the one who fired the nuclear bomb on Gotham. He sold weapons to the American government and secretly to the Eastern Coalition.”

“Thus prolonging the war and chipping away at the Justice League’s ability and power to end the war.” Pike frowned angrily.

“Eventually, one by one, the heroes were killed off, either from protecting the civilians caught in the crossfire or by the government. Diana and her people were forced to evacuate and blow up Themyscira when the American government invaded to steal the Amazonian technology. Luckily, Diana had the foresight to hide the more dangerous tech in the Watchtower when the war erupted. And she sought me out to request refuge for her and her sisters on Mythos.”

“So that explains why the Amazonians are on Mythos.” Pike muttered. “And the Watchtower?”

“Well, at that point, Superman was the only hero left on Earth. And something happened. It was the last straw for Clark and he decided that humans were crueler than they were worth the effort the save. So he took what remained of his family to the Watchtower and we managed to get it to Mythos where Diana and Arion were waiting for us.” Victor slowly said.

“It was this incident that destroyed his and Diana’s faith in humanity.” Arion blinked sadly.

“What was this incident anyway?” Detmer dared to ask.

“…It’s best that we don’t talk about it.” Arion waved his hand to dissipate the cloud and Victor canceled the fireplace and his seat holo. “It’s getting late. I have to go back to the forest before the night cycle. I’ll be back tomorrow with Diana and Clark to go through the final details of the temporary alliance. There are rooms down the corridor that you can use.”

“Thank you for telling us the story behind WWIII.” Pike shook his hand. When Arion teleported away, Pike turned to his officers. “We better get started on downloading the files. The admirals are going to have a field day sorting through all the data and verifying them.”

“This is going to change Earth’s understanding of its history drastically.” Michael sighed as she and Nilsson went back to the terminal with the bag of PADDs to start copying them over.

“Just so you know, some of the more sensitive files are encrypted and though you can download them, they will still be encrypted.” Victor warned them.

“Then why allow us to download them in the first place?” Michael frowned.

“It’s part of Diana and Clark’s plan. They will explain everything tomorrow.” Victor shrugged. Michael was unsatisfied by the answer but Nilsson pulled her attention back to copying the files to stop her from pursuing answers.

“You coming Detmer?” Pike asked the helmsman when he saw that she was lingering behind.

“I’ll like to stay here a little longer, if that’s ok with you.” Detmer shook her head.

“Suit yourself.” Pike shrugged, understanding that she wanted to see more of what the room had to offer. He too would want to come back here and find out more about the members of the Justice League. Maybe tomorrow when he had time. A part of him can’t wait for Admiral Cornwell to get the news of their findings. She’ll be mad at him for giving her a headache and tons of work and paperwork. But hey, that’s the fun of discovering something new, or in this case, uncovering what was forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you know who the Instigator is. But the reason why Arion and Victor refuse to tell them who he is, is largely out of spite to Lex Luthor. By refusing to mention his name or show them who he is, Luthor will eventually be forgotten from their history. And now you know how the Justice League was destroyed and why Diana and Clark lost faith in humanity. 
> 
> P.S. I didn't mention the Teen Titans yet because in Arion's nature as a fairy, you don't ask, you don't get answers.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is shorter than usual and it's more of a filler chapter.

_On Clark’s farm_

The sky was turning purple, signaling the dark cycle was approaching soon. Diana flew over the farm and soon landed at the plot of graves beside the house. As she expected, Clark was standing over one particular one. It was one of the oldest graves in the plot and Diana knew the occupant of the grave caused Clark the most hurt in the past 250 years.

“Bruce would not want you to blame yourself for his death.” She quietly told Clark as she came to stand beside him.

“Bruce is not here to tell us how we should feel.” Clark shot back.

“Fair point. No one understood Bruce better than you.” Diana hummed. “But I do know something he would want us to do.”

“And that is?”

“Find a way to defeat Darksied once and for all.”

Clark huffed a small laugh at that. “He would. But considering all the times he came back from the dead? I’m not sure if there is even a permanent solution.”

“It’s still up to us to try. We’re the only beings left in the universe that can match up to his power.” Diana reminded him. It was a somber reminder of the friends they lost in the past.

“We still have a chance if Orion or Barda survived. We just need to go to New Genesis and see if anyone survived.” Clark pursed his lips.

“We also need to be prepared if we don’t find what we want…or if they will agree to ally themselves with us again.” Diana said quietly. “It has been over 250 years. They might have changed.”

“I know. But I am hoping that knowing that Darksied is alive will be incentive enough to work together again.” Clark reached out and rubbed the headstone caringly. “At times like this I am reminded that we do not age as fast as the world does.”

“I know.” Diana eyed Clark’s grey hair and wrinkles around his eyes. Clark had aged more than she did in the past years. She suspected it was because of the stress of the wars and the fact that Mythos did not have a sun. Though the UV rays produced by the EM field in the atmosphere gave him enough radiation to maintain his powers, it was not enough to completely stop him from aging. Bruce had theorized once that it was possible for Clark’s Kryptonian DNA to stop himself from aging close to a thousand years before his body eventually adapt to the yellow sun radiation and he loses his powers and temporary immorality.

Clark breath out a sigh and gestured with his head at his house. “I fixed up a pot of Arion’s special tea. Do you want to join me for a cup?”

“How can I turn down Arion’s special tea?” Diana chuckled and followed him inside his house.

* * *

Back on the Watchtower, Michael and Nilsson were not even half-way done on copying the files from the terminal.

“Most of the files are large because they contain comprehensive reports, news clips, protocol to handle the events, and how to prevent it from happening again.” Michael told Pike when asked why it was taking so long. “And most of the protocols were written by the hero Batman.”

“From reading these reports, I’m beginning to understand why Victor said that the Justice League could not end WWIII without him.” Pike remarked as he read a file from one of the PADDs that had been filed to capacity. The files about the supervillains were interesting to say the least. Most of them contained video clips of the heroes’ fights against them. And seeing both sides used powers and mental strength to battle each other was a sight to behold.

“Batman was a very paranoid person who constantly planned contingencies on contingencies. And he was the one with the best tacticians who could go head to head with the Instigator.” Victor remarked to them as he pinged another PADD had been filled up. “Keep it up. You’re half way through.”

“There can’t be that many alien invasions on Earth in the past.” Pike frowned at the remaining number of files.

“Nah, we had a controlled number ever since we defeated Darksied in what was supposed to be the final battle. Most of the Justice League’s job was to help out during natural disasters and deal with supervillains and their team ups. We also have several groups affiliated with the Justice League and their reports included in the numbers as well.”

“Arion didn’t say much about these groups.” Nilsson said as she found a few files about these groups. Curious, she opened them and her jaw dropped slightly. “Wait! Teen Titans? You had teenagers fight supervillains!?”

Pike and Michael leaned over to see the file that Nilsson was reading. They were equally astonished as she was by the end of it.

“Yeah, teenage sidekicks and heroes were not uncommon back then. I was part of the Titans group back then. The Titans was a place where we called home. Everyone of us were family, no matter how different we are.” Victor said with a hint of reminiscence in his tone.

“So the villains the Teen Titans took down are different from the Justice League?”

“The Justice League handled the more dangerous ones. We had our own villains to content with. There’s also the Teen Titans Dark, our sister team, to help with the more magical and supernatural villains. Arion was part of the Teen Titans Dark.”

“I thought you said that you were a member of the Justice League?” Pike frowned.

“That was after I turned 18 and graduated from the Teen Titans. Once most members from the Teen Titans turn 18 and graduate, they can either become solo heroes in their respective towns or cities; or join the young adult team, the Titans. Same goes for the Titans Dark.”

“So the Teen Titans teams were some sort of a preparatory group for the younger heroes to make connections with others in their generation and prepare them for their solo careers in the hero business.” Michael summarized.

“Never really thought about it that way, but yeah.” Victor shrugged.

“Anything else about teenage superheroes that we should know?” Pike asked drily.

“Nope. The rest of the Justice League’s allies are adults. But most of them kept to their sphere of operations. They rarely interacted with the Justice League unless the situation is dire.”

Pike reached into his pocket and felt the data pad that Arion gave him about the signals. It miraculously survived when he was set on fire by the Parademon. And his mind pushed it to the backburner as his excitement about learning about the Justice League overtook his priorities. With the data download needing more time, he chose an unused terminal and inserted the data pad to look through the signal data while waiting.

Based on the data that the Watchtower gathered, the signal was emitting tachyon radiation, a common byproduct of cloaking devices or transporters. But there was a note attached to the findings by Clark that it was likely from time travel. Case and point, his sensitivity to radiation and past experience with time travel (Pike would need to read up on the Justice League’s files on time travel and Clark’s physiology to find out more about that). Diana and Arion also gave their input based on analysis made by Amazonian technology and magic. But neither of them could provide more explanation beyond what the Watchtower could provide.

But Victor also included an image they managed to capture on the signal. Pike narrowed his eyes at the image. There was a humanoid in the red burst of light with wings. But it was difficult to make it out the exact nature of the angelic being as the red light badly distorted the image.

“Burnham.”

The sharp note in his tone made Michael and Nilsson look at the captain in confusion. Without a word, Michael moved over to the captain’s terminal. Her eyes widened by a fraction when she saw the image.

“Is that…?”

“The image that the Watchtower captured when the signal appeared.” Victor finished for her as his hologram appeared beside her.

“And this…angel? It appeared with the signal?” Pike questioned him.

“Yeah. We don’t know what it is yet but we ruled out Thanagarian. We worked with one before and the rest of the race was wiped out by their war with the Gordanians and the Apokolips war.”

“So based on physiology comparisons, you’re sure that it’s not a Thanagarian?”

“The wings are in the wrong shape.” Victor brought up several images of Thanagarians to emphasize his point.

“Fair enough.”

“I’ve seen it before.” Michael suddenly said, making them look to her in surprise. She looked at Pike with a grim look. “The angelic being appeared to me on the asteroid.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Pike frowned at her.

“I was injured. I thought I was hallucinating.”

“That can’t be a coincidence. Two signals, two angel sightings.”

“How many signals are there?” Victor asked, suddenly remembering that they didn’t ask for the specific number.

“Eight. All of them appeared simultaneously across the galaxy then disappeared except for one leading us to a dark matter asteroid. Then the second one showed up, leading us here.”

“Six more to go.” Victor mused. “I need to let Diana and Clark know about this. We’ll talk more in the day cycle.” With that, his hologram frizzed out.

“Sir, with all due respect, the word ‘angel’ does carry with it certain implications.” Michael spoke carefully. “I saw a form. It hovered above me. And it was…” Michael trailed off, trying to find the words to describe it. “To be honest, quite beautiful.”

Pike cracked a smile at that, knowing that it was a rare praise from the science officer if her Vulcan upbringing was anything to go by. Michael however was not finished, “But beyond that, I would not ascribe to it divine properties. So far, the signals brought us to two different locations with no connection to each other.”

“But the first signal led us to rescue Commander Reno and the survivors of the _Hiawatha_. The second led us to find the missing pieces of Earth’s 21st century history.”

“And inadvertently revealed the existence of these…’New Gods’.”

Pike could tell that Michael was still skeptical of the New Gods race. He huffed and shook his head. “But if it didn’t, the Federation would not have known about Darksied and when we did, it might have been too late. The Federation can now search for information about him from its worlds and hopefully find something that help defend us against him.”

Michael was still doubtful from the looks of her face. Pike hoped that in time, Michael can accept that not everything has to be answered with logic. Sure, magic was not too uncommon from what the Federation would expect to encounter when visiting new worlds. More often than not, what they thought to be magic can scientifically explained, especially on more primitive worlds.

But that is not the case on Mythos. Pike knew they were technologically more advanced than they let on thanks to their magic. He might be inclined to doubt the validity of the fairies and Amazonians’ magic, but everything he has seen and experienced in the past few days showed that there is not a scientific explanation that can explain it. Case and point, Michael’s frustration at her inability to disprove Arion’s magic, or energy manipulation as he provided.

And Pike knew he should not blindly trust them. For all he knew, they could be fabricating their story about Earth’s history to make the Federation let down their guard. But it didn’t make any sense considering Diana and Clark’s initial hostility towards them and human kind in general. It took them risking their lives fighting the Parademons to be allowed to learn about this history at all. And there was Detmer’s family history with Clark and Diana. She was willing to vouch for their story’s validity but ultimately it was up to the admirals and leaders of Earth to confirm it.

But one thing Pike learned from the mission here is that everything is not what it seems. There can be more twist and turns to the mystery of the eight signals and he has a feeling in his gut that they connect to Darksied. If they could get Diana and Clark on the Federation’s side however, there is a good chance they can stop him from whatever it is that he’s planning, and based on his past invasions on Earth, it could very well be to destroy the Federation.


End file.
